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Hello everyone,

I'd like your help please.

We have a new teacher and she wanted to make borax crystals with the whole class (horror!)
She said she always did it at her last school! I explained it is Teacher only and may damage fertility etc and she made copper sulfate and alum potassium sulfate ones instead. But she gave them all to take home! I have never in 20 years known a teacher to give them to the students. I usually recycle the copper sulfate and keep any waste. Risk Assess says less than 1g day of solid in garbage.

What are your thoughts?

TIA

No way. Never. We have a rule that nothing is to leave the lab unless it is paper (being put into their books) or sherbet (but I nag the teacher about making small quantities).
As for copper sulfate (or any other chemical) - we can't guarantee that the students will handle it safely outside or on the bus home. What would happen if a younger sibling were to ingest it at home? So many risks that the school would still be responsible for. We wouldn't even let kids take alum crystals home.

Oh that whole "at my last school" thing annoys me. I have heard it too many times. If I believed that I would be thinking that every other school has no risk management practices in place. Seriously guys? Don't treat us like idiots!

Exactly I feel the same as you!

And I keep hearing that "at my last school" thing and it is frustrating so thanks for your reply Merilyn!

Appreciate your help.

That's absolutely something that should not happen. Even small amounts of copper going down a sink contaminates sewage sludge so badly that it cannot be used as fertiliser. And a WHS nightmare for the school if something goes wrong.

I was taken aback yesterday and I'm grateful for your help. I explained this to the teacher & my Head Teacher and the crystals were all returned to the prep room! Phew.
Thanks

Marama T wrote: ↑06 Apr 2022, 09:25 That's absolutely something that should not happen. Even small amounts of copper going down a sink contaminates sewage sludge so badly that it cannot be used as fertiliser. And a WHS nightmare for the school if something goes wrong.

That's interesting - yes, copper can be toxic to plants, in fact we have a student looking at this for her project. But copper compounds can be used as a relatively safe fungicide (safe when compared to the options). I guess it comes down to the quantity in the sludge.

Merilyn1 wrote: ↑07 Apr 2022, 08:32

Marama T wrote: ↑06 Apr 2022, 09:25 That's absolutely something that should not happen. Even small amounts of copper going down a sink contaminates sewage sludge so badly that it cannot be used as fertiliser. And a WHS nightmare for the school if something goes wrong.

That's interesting - yes, copper can be toxic to plants, in fact we have a student looking at this for her project. But copper compounds can be used as a relatively safe fungicide (safe when compared to the options). I guess it comes down to the quantity in the sludge.

Oh, I didn't think of that. Maybe we need a botanist to explain.

Got onto this thread two days late. Absolutely NO to copper sulfate crystals going home and yes it has happened, one child's younger sibling did think that the copper sulfate crystal was a lolly and ingested it. Can't remember which state it was or what the final outcome was but since learning of that particular incident absolutely no copper crystals have left the laboratories to go home with our students. I hope you did get all the crystals back from the students. They can be a tricky little lot if they think something is pretty and awesome.

Not allowed to take any chemicals home. If they want to make borax crystals they can do it at home as well as copper sulphate ones. All this stuff is easily available to the public. Personally I don't even trust them to behave with sherbet, and just said no to taking their slime home. It ends up all over the school.