A French researcher has raised awareness of the dangers of sharp needles in laboratories after a horrific accident involving a routine solvent leak. He now calls for the development of needle replacements for transferring solvents or reagents to improve laboratory safety. 1
        In June 2018, 22-year-old student Nicolas was working in the laboratory of Sebastien Vidal at the University of Lyon 1. He poured a syringe of dichloromethane (DXM) into a flask and accidentally pricked his finger. Vidal calculated that about two drops or less than 100 microliters of DXM remained in the needle and got into the finger.
        A series of graphic photographs show what happened next – the magazine article warns that some may find the images (below) disturbing. Approximately 15 minutes after the needle prick, Nicolas developed a purple spot on his finger. Two hours later, the edges of the purple plaques began to darken, indicating the onset of necrosis – cell death. At this point, Nicholas complained that his fingers were hot and he couldn’t move them.
        Nicholas required emergency surgery to save his finger. The surgeons, who initially thought he would have to be amputated, managed to remove the dead skin around the stab wound and reconstructed the finger using a skin graft from Nicholas’ hand. The surgeon later recalled that in his 25 years of working in emergency rooms, he had never seen such an injury.
       Nicholas’s fingers are now almost back to normal, although his guitar playing suffered from necrosis that damaged his nerves, weakening his strength and dexterity.
        DCM is one of the most commonly used organic solvents in synthetic chemistry laboratories. The DCM Injury Information and its Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) provide details on eye contact, skin contact, ingestion and inhalation, but not on injection, Vidal noted. During the investigation, Vidal found that a similar incident occurred in Thailand, although the man voluntarily injected himself with 2 milliliters of dichloromethane, the consequences of which were reported in a Bangkok hospital. 2
        These cases indicate that the MSDS files should be changed to include information related to parenterals, Vidal said. “But my security officer at the university told me that modifying the MSDS files would take a long time and require a lot of data to be collected.” These included detailed animal studies to reproduce the accident, analysis of tissue damage, and medical evaluations.
        Student fingers in various stages after an accidental injection of a small amount of methylene chloride. From left to right, 10-15 minutes after injury, then 2 hours, 24 hours (post-surgery), 2 days, 5 days, and 1 year (both lower images)
        Given the lack of information about the implementation of DCM, Vidal hopes that this story will be widely circulated. Feedback is positive. He said the document was [widely circulated]. “Security officials from universities in Canada, the US and France told me they were going to include this story in their curricula. People thanked us for sharing this story. Many did not want to talk about it for fear of negative publicity [for their institution ] But our institutions have been very supportive from the beginning and still are.
        Vidal also wants the scientific community and chemical suppliers to develop safer protocols and alternative equipment for routine procedures such as chemical transfer. One idea is to use a “flat-pointed” needle to avoid puncture wounds. “They are available now, but we usually use pointed needles in organic chemistry because we need to introduce solvents through rubber stoppers to protect our reaction vessels from outside air/moisture. “Flat” needles cannot pass through rubber stoppers. This is not an easy question, but perhaps this failure will lead to good ideas.
        Alain Martin, health and safety manager at the University of Strathclyde’s Department of Chemistry, said she had never seen such an accident. “In the lab, syringes with needles are usually used, but if accuracy is important, then using micropipettes may be a safer option,” she adds, depending on training, such as choosing tips and using pipettes correctly. “Are our students being taught how to properly handle needles, how to insert and remove needles?” she asked. “Anyone think what else can be used? Probably no.
        2 K. Sanprasert, T. Thangtrongchitr and N. Krairojananan, Asia. Pack. J. Med. Toxicology, 2018, 7, 84 (DOI: 10.22038/apjmt.2018.11981)
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