Australia's Science Forum

Hi All,

Not sure if I'm putting this in the correct thread, but here it goes.

Is there any concern with handing out chemicals labelled unknown to students? My teachers ask for it all the time, so the students can figure out what the unknown solution is, but I'm wondering about the risks involved in having unlabeled unknown solutions. Thoughts? Am i being to paranoid now?

Are they hazardous chemicals? If not, you could get away with nothing on them, but make sure the teacher has the list of what is in each container. If they are hazardous you are going to have more of a problem. I think I have labelled them with the GHS pictograms in the past, again giving the teacher a list of what is in each.
If they insist on doing this, always give the minimum quantity in each container and ensure the teacher tells the students to wear PPE for that needed for the most hazardous.
Is this for a senior class? I'd be reluctant to give hazardous chemicals to a junior class without labels. BUT, at the end of the day it is not our decision - as long as your head teacher approves and you make a note of it.

We use to do this, are you a DoE school? If so you may label them as unknown with a colour dot of course, you are only allowed ONE Unknown around at one time, unless it is a different colour say blue for copper sulfate, I do hope you can follow me. So long as the teacher and you know what the unknown is of course. It is quite legal to do this.

For the rest of us, i.e. non-DoE schools, unlabelled chemicals could pose a problem if there was an incident.

true but if you keep them separated from any thing else, we would make up a stock bottle of say HCL 1m and it would be unlabeled just going into the class room for the period, we would pour it into beakers labeled unknown, but the stock bottle would stay in the prep room. Once they have finished it would go back into the stock bottle and used for junior classes. I think our teacher would always check their where no more unknown beakers in her room after that lesson. If a student or two had missed out, we would lock the beakers away marked unknown until they had time to do it.

the ones I'm about to do are hazardous, though it is a senior class. it is also part of our end of year prac exam for 2 year groups, at which point they are labelled a, b, c and I email the identification to the year groups teacher, but that may not always be the teacher supervising the prac. I know my HOD approves of it, but then again, she calls me silly and fussy for a lot of things I believe are unsafe or that I've been told in courses is illegal. I'm just finding it hard to find the balance between fulfilling the needs and wants of the teachers and protecting the students, teachers and myself (the last two mostly for legal purposes). My greatest fear is a student is hurt and I could have prevented it, or it was my fault.

We also do a lot of this but I put a sticker on them with "Un known Sample A " "Unknown sample B" etc and the teacher and I have a list of which is which . We have a lot of old DG stickers so although its not technically correct , we often stick a Scull and Cross bones sticker on the jar as well so hopefully the kids won't be too studip with it .

Well done Bigmack I had forgotten about the old stickers DG ones,

Ok, sounds like I'll do that. Thanks All

I do this all the time (senior chem) Basically I put all the information on the label except name and formula. Multiple unknowns get labelled with unique identifiers for each, teacher gets SDS for each chemical. So no different to putting any chemical out in the lab really.

I would still have the pictograms perhaps and with the ABC also send the list (with attached SDS) to your clinic as to what is in each in the event they end up there saying A was splashed in my eye .. Good luck