Question: Does your job include a lot of risk depending on the work you're doing, or cause moral issues for anyone on how it is tested?

Sinead Balgobin answered on 8 Nov 2015:

It’s a very risky job- I use lots of chemicals and do lots of things that are not good for me! We are very good at assessing that risk though. I have to fill out short forms before every experiment so that I can check I know all the dangers, and so that anyone nearby knows what I am doing too (and so that if it does all go terribly wrong, the fire service knows what they are dealing with.)

These dangers can be chemical (burns, poisons, cancer-causing molecules) or more mechanical, to do with the reaction set-up itself. One of my friends caused a small explosion because his reaction released a lot of nitrogen gas, which is not dangerous, but there was too much for his flask to hold and so it exploded. He was okay, just a few cuts and bruised from the flying glass. It was very scary though.

Specifically for my job, the moral issues mostly surround pollution and the use of dangerous chemicals. That’s because I don’t directly work with the testing of drug candidates (possible medicines), so people don’t think about animal testing, for example, when they think of my job (that comes later). But my job, creating new reactions for making new molecules, can be responsible for dangerous pollution. This is a huge moral issue because we need to look after our planet, because it keeps us alive! Luckily, lots of scientists are looking for more environmentally friendly ways of making molecules.

I’d like to say to you that I am in favour of animal testing for important medicines. While I don’t do it, it is where my research will ultimately end up, and lots of people do have moral issues with this. I don’t agree that we should test cosmetics, like lipstick etc, on animals, because those things are just about how you look. But medicines are so important for saving lives and keeping us healthy, and animal testing is the only way we can find out if they work or will be safe for humans. It’s a very difficult subject, and you should try and find out lots of people’s opinions and why they have them before you decide what you think.