Risk assessing your chemistry practicals

A piece of paper with warning symbols on that has been burned and splashed

Source: Composite image, all © Shutterstock

Keep on top of risk assessments to ensure your practical lessons are safe

Risk assessment gets a bad rap. But it’s essential to ensuring we stay safe in the chemistry classroom. Good risk assessment is a process that identifies hazards, assesses risks and reduces those risks with control measures. It’s important that teachers consider appropriate and measured responses to risk while still allowing students to ‘do’ science through practical work. Bad rap aside, risk assessment is crucial to doing our jobs safely and professionally.

Thanks for using Education in Chemistry. You can view one Education in Chemistry article per month as a visitor. 

A photograph of a teacher standing in a white lab coat, speaking with a class of children in a laboratory, is superimposed on a colourful background. Text reads "Teach Chemistry means support for classroom and staff room".

Register for Teach Chemistry for free, unlimited access

Registration is open to all teachers and technicians at secondary schools, colleges and teacher training institutions in the UK and Ireland.

Get all this, plus much more:

  • unlimited access to resources, core practical videos and Education in Chemistry articles
  • teacher well-being toolkit, personal development resources and online assessments
  • applications for funding to support your lessons

Already a Teach Chemistry member? Sign in now.

Not eligible for Teach Chemistry? Sign up for a personal account instead, or you can also access all our resources with Royal Society of Chemistry membership.