Projects involving Hazardous Materials

DEFINITION: research that involves the use of haz­ardous mate­ri­als, devices and activ­i­ties (Includes DEA-con­trolled sub­stances, pre­scrip­tion drugs, alco­hol & tobac­co, firearms and explo­sives, radi­a­tion, lasers, etc.). Rules for Haz­ardous Mate­ri­als include sub­stances and devices that are reg­u­lat­ed by local, state, coun­try, or inter­na­tion­al law, most often with restric­tions of their use by minors such as DEA-con­trolled sub­stances, pre­scrip­tion drugs, alco­hol and tobac­co and firearms and explo­sives. Haz­ardous activ­i­ties are those that involve a lev­el of risk above and beyond that encoun­tered in the student’s every­day life.

ALL projects involv­ing research with haz­ardous mate­ri­als must be pre-approved by the LA Coun­ty Sci­ence Review Com­mit­tee (SRC) before exper­i­men­ta­tion is begun, with the fol­low­ing exceptions:

  • mod­el rock­et exper­i­men­ta­tion using a ful­ly assem­bled rock­et motor, reload kit or pro­pel­lant modules,
  • com­mon­ly used lab­o­ra­to­ry devices, assum­ing that the stu­dent researcher has expe­ri­ence work­ing with them, such as Bun­sen burn­ers, hot plates, scales, saws, drills, ham­mers, etc. with over­sight by an adult.
  • using dry ice when prop­er safe­ty gear is worn and there is adult supervision

Before begin­ning research involv­ing haz­ardous mate­ri­als, activ­i­ties or devices, be sure to check with your school or Dis­trict fair as more strict rules and guide­lines may be in effect.

Pro­hib­it­ed Research

Liq­uid Nitrogen

Extreme­ly Haz­ardous Chem­i­cals (OSHA)

Pre­scrip­tion Drugs

Alco­hol and Tobacco

Firearms and Explo­sives –includ­ing air­soft guns, paint­ball guns, B.B. guns, pel­let guns, air rifles, Edu­ca­tion Code 48900(b) Cre­at­ing explo­sions or set­ting items on fire is strict­ly pro­hib­it­ed. M‑80’s and Cher­ry Bombs are explo­sives. Excep­tions to this exclu­sion is the use of a ful­ly assem­bled rock­et motor, use of reload kit or pro­pel­lant mod­ules; and burn­ing food with a calorimeter.

Super­vi­sion Regulations

  1. The stu­dent researcher must con­duct a risk assess­ment in col­lab­o­ra­tion with a Des­ig­nat­ed Super­vi­sor or Qual­i­fied Sci­en­tist pri­or to experimentation.
  2. The use of haz­ardous mate­ri­als and devices and involve­ment in haz­ardous activ­i­ties require direct super­vi­sion.
  3. All stud­ies using DEA Sched­ule 1 sub­stances must have the research pro­to­col approved by DEA before research begins
  4. For all chem­i­cals, devices or activ­i­ties requir­ing a Fed­er­al and/or State Per­mit, the student/supervisor will be expect­ed to have the per­mit pri­or to the onset of experimentation.

Safe­ty Precautions

The stu­dent researcher must design exper­i­ments to min­i­mize the impact that an exper­i­ment has on the envi­ron­ment, for instance using min­i­mal quan­ti­ties of chem­i­cals that must sub­se­quent­ly be dis­posed of in an envi­ron­men­tal­ly safe man­ner in accor­dance with good lab­o­ra­to­ry prac­tices. The Sci­ence Safe­ty Hand­book for CA Pub­lic Schools (2014) describes gen­er­al lab safe­ty pre­cau­tions (page 26–31).

  • Always han­dle dry ice with insu­lat­ed gloves and wear eye protection.
  • Burn­ing sol­id sub­stances (such with a calorime­ter) must be per­formed under a fume hood or out­side the classroom.

Poi­so­nous Plants

This sec­tion of the Sci­ence Safe­ty Hand­book describes the effects of poi­so­nous plants (15-page PDF).  The com­plete Safe­ty Hand­book can be viewed/downloaded here.

Soil sam­ples from known or sus­pect­ed con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed areas require pre-approval for haz­ardous materials. 

Waste Dis­pos­al

Exper­i­men­ta­tion must include prop­er dis­pos­al meth­ods for the chemicals/materials used in an experiment.

Radi­a­tion

A risk assess­ment must be con­duct­ed when a stu­dent uses non-ion­iz­ing radi­a­tion beyond that nor­mal­ly encoun­tered in every­day life. You should nev­er look direct­ly into a laser or a laser reflec­tion think­ing it is safe. Fol­low stan­dard laser safe­ty pro­to­cols to avoid laser expo­sure to bystanders. THIS YEAR, ALL PROJECTS INVOLVING LASERS REQUIRE PRE-APPROVAL FROM THE SRC.

Projects involv­ing radionu­clides (radioiso­topes) and X‑rays must involve a care­ful exam­i­na­tion of the risks asso­ci­at­ed with the study.

Please see the Haz­ardous Mate­ri­als and Pro­ce­dures Webi­nar for more infor­ma­tion regard­ing projects involv­ing Haz­ardous Mate­ri­als and Procedures.

Below are the resources need­ed for Research involv­ing Haz­ardous Mate­ri­als and Procedures:

Haz­ardous Mate­ri­als Online Pre-Approval tem­plate (This is a fil­l­able PDF. Please down­load this doc­u­ment to your device and enter your respons­es in the giv­en box­es. You do not need to com­plete the form in one sit­ting. Choose Save to save your progress. Once you com­plete the form, get it approved by your adult super­vi­sor and site coor­di­na­tor BEFORE you go online to com­plete the online pre-approval form. You can then copy and paste your respons­es in the appro­pri­ate sec­tions of the online form.)

In addi­tion, Senior Divi­sion stu­dents need to com­plete the ISEF Human Informed Con­sent form and bring them to the fair.