Working safely

Habits from the laboratory.

Basic rules

Know what you are handling, work with ventilation, add acid to water rather than water to acid, and label everything. Most accidents are procedural rather than exotic.

Safety data sheets exist for almost every substance and are free to read.
Waste disposal is part of the procedure, not an afterthought.

Scale matters

A reaction that is gentle in a test tube can be violent in a bucket, because heat escapes more slowly as volume grows. Scaling up is a chemical decision, not just a bigger version.