The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is a federal government agency which has a mandate to investigate chemical accidents. Unfortunately, the CSB has no shortage of work, since there is apparently an endless supply of such accidents in the U.S. (and elsewhere, of course). The good news is that often these incidents provide valuable insights into safety issues and can serve as useful learning tools. The CSB has done a great job of investigating a wide variety of workplace accidents, from small to large scale, and producing very high quality videos which provide unique insights into the causes of these accidents. In my Laboratory Safety course, I often use these videos to highlight a range of safety concerns and encourage my students to identify the root causes of the incidents and determine what could have been done differently.

An image from a CSB video.

Anyone with an interest in chemical or industrial safety might want to spend some time on the CSB website, especially on the video section, which currently hosts about 50 videos on subjects as diverse as reactive hazards, static electrical discharge and combustible dusts. – Michael Judge.