I’m just wondering, I don’t think it is safe for students to use kerosene and ethanol near a bunsen burner, is it very safe or not for my teacher to have prepared this experiment?
they are both flammable, but they are burned for fuel so its not like they produce toxic chemicals or they’re explosive im sure its fine as long as ur not pouring ethanol over u and start playing with a bunsen burner…
Neither will explode but you must taken great care not to spill them. If a jar of ethanol of kerosene catches on fire you just put the lid back on it and it will go out. If you spill it and it catches you have trouble. If it was a small quantity of flammable liquid and it was controlled I don’t think it was very dangerous.
No, it is not safe. I had one fire in my laboratory that started in exactly that way. A tech was cleaning some utensils with xylene, a solvent similar to kerosene. She had some paper towels on the bench with xylene on them. Another tech was using a bunsen burner about 4 feet away. The vapors from the solvent traveled to the burner, ignited and flashed back to the paper towels. Fortunately no-one was hurt. Flames and flammable solvents obviously should not be used in close proximity.
Rob T June 25, 2009
10:56 pm
Students probably shouldn’t be using kerosene for anything, period. Apart from the fire and explosion risks, kerosene is carcinogenic both from breathing the vapour and as liquid in contact with the skin.
Ethanol is probably no more dangerous than lots of other things in a lab, provided that it is treated with the respect it deserves. After all, people have been distilling the stuff with home-made equipment for centuries without burning themselves to death!
Taking all the risk out of science teaching is a good way to make science so boring that nobody wants to study it. You can’t learn physics or chemistry just by watching videos of experiments, any more than you can learn biology without getting close to some living creatures.
Those two solvents shouldn’t be anywhere near an open flame. They are very volatile and highly flammable. Smallest spark will set it one fire . Having those compounds around a lit bunsen burner is like looking into a gas tank with a lighted match…You’re just asking for trouble!
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I wouldnt think it is safe.
Tell your teacher before you do so.
they are both flammable, but they are burned for fuel so its not like they produce toxic chemicals or they’re explosive im sure its fine as long as ur not pouring ethanol over u and start playing with a bunsen burner…
Neither will explode but you must taken great care not to spill them. If a jar of ethanol of kerosene catches on fire you just put the lid back on it and it will go out. If you spill it and it catches you have trouble. If it was a small quantity of flammable liquid and it was controlled I don’t think it was very dangerous.
No, it is not safe. I had one fire in my laboratory that started in exactly that way. A tech was cleaning some utensils with xylene, a solvent similar to kerosene. She had some paper towels on the bench with xylene on them. Another tech was using a bunsen burner about 4 feet away. The vapors from the solvent traveled to the burner, ignited and flashed back to the paper towels. Fortunately no-one was hurt. Flames and flammable solvents obviously should not be used in close proximity.
Students probably shouldn’t be using kerosene for anything, period. Apart from the fire and explosion risks, kerosene is carcinogenic both from breathing the vapour and as liquid in contact with the skin.
Ethanol is probably no more dangerous than lots of other things in a lab, provided that it is treated with the respect it deserves. After all, people have been distilling the stuff with home-made equipment for centuries without burning themselves to death!
Taking all the risk out of science teaching is a good way to make science so boring that nobody wants to study it. You can’t learn physics or chemistry just by watching videos of experiments, any more than you can learn biology without getting close to some living creatures.
Those two solvents shouldn’t be anywhere near an open flame. They are very volatile and highly flammable. Smallest spark will set it one fire . Having those compounds around a lit bunsen burner is like looking into a gas tank with a lighted match…You’re just asking for trouble!