• Question: what are the risks involved in your work?

    Asked by Lucy M to Ahmed, Francesca, George, James, Nitheen on 17 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Francesca Paradisi

      Francesca Paradisi answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      We keep them to a minimum. Beside working with enzymes that are very safe, I also do a bit of synthesis and some reagents could be dangerous if mishandled. We have very strict safety protocols that we follow so i am very happy all my students are in no danger.

    • Photo: James Sullivan

      James Sullivan answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      Hi Lucy – all experiments have an element of risk – but we try to minimise these by carefully planning the experiment.

      The most common risks are that I’d be cut on some broken apparatus – or possibly a fire – but these are very rare.

    • Photo: Ahmed Osman

      Ahmed Osman answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      Hi Lucy M
      I am working on an explosive reaction it is a mixture of methane and oxygen with catalyst so if there is any error in the feed flow it will make explosion but I am working for more than one year and nothing happen as I follow the explosion ratio chart and I am in the safe side
      thanks
      Ahmed

    • Photo: George Dowson

      George Dowson answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      Safety is extremely important when doing any reaction, especially any that involve gases.
      You always must be prepared for accidents, especially other people making mistakes when you don’t know what they’re doing.
      Thankfully accidents are very rare but the main risks are toxic materials and debris from explosions that have not been properly prepared for, then fires and elecric problems.

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