(134a) Better Together: Education and Collaboration to Mitigate the Risk of High Energy Materials in Research and Development Laboratories

That hazard recognition is a critical antecedent to hazard mitigation will resonate with Process Safety and Environmental, Health, & Safety (EH&S) professionals alike. The research and development (R&D) setting presents several challenges to attaining high levels of hazard recognition, particularly with respect to high energy (HE) materials, that is, chemical compounds or mixtures that, through commonly encountered laboratory operations (friction, impact, heat, etc.) may undergo rapid and unpredictable decomposition with the concomitant release of significant stored chemical energy. As research activities frequently entail combining reagents in new and (hitherto) unanticipated ways in the pursuit of new knowledge, products, and technologies, the generation of HE materials can be an unintentional and undesired byproduct of experimentation.

The smaller scale of laboratory operations can inadvertently create a false sense of security that such activities are inherently safe. While broader community impacts are less likely, the potential for damage to equipment and potentially serious injury to personnel remain significant.

We will describe approaches to raising overall hazard awareness within R&D laboratories at The Dow Chemical Company. Our solution entails a three-pronged approach of basic education, decision-aids for researchers to help them assess potential hazards on their own, and a strong and effective partnership between individual researchers and reactive chemistry subject matter experts to provide timely feedback on proposed research activities with the goal of facilitating safe and effective experimentation in the laboratory. We will highlight several examples from industry and academia where insufficient hazard recognition resulted in reactive chemical incidents and include success stories from Dow laboratories where collaboration between researchers and reactive chemistry subject matter experts has resulted in safer outcomes and demonstrated that safety programs are enabling to the research enterprise.