By David Graff, AAU Communication and Public Affairs

Following an improvement in safety and a new approach to the education and training of the students running the shows, Aalborg University is now ready to resume the shows after an accident in September.

- We quickly clarified what went wrong in Tønder, and we have subsequently carefully reviewed the description and chemical risk assessment of this and the 31 different demonstration experiments that can be included in the show, explains Head of Department Kim Lambertsen Larsen.

To generate interest

For many years, the chemistry shows have been an important educational activity at the Department of Chemistry and Bioscience. The shows were originally started by a student organisation to communicate the wonderful world of chemistry to children and other interested parties.

- We still believe that generating interest for chemistry is a core task for us, which is why we are resuming the chemistry shows. They will be both informative and entertaining, and fire, smoke and other effects will be a natural part of the shows, explains Kim Lambertsen Larsen and emphasises:

- But a chemistry show should be a safe and secure experience for both the audience and the students performing the experiments.

Safety has been improved

The accident at Tønder Library was caused by using a bottle with a screw cap instead of a bottle with a cork. This meant that the gas produced during the experiment could not escape from the bottle, the pressure increased and this led to the explosion.

For this reason, it has been decided that all risk assessments and descriptions of the shows' experiments and workshops must be approved by a chemist-trained member of the department's health and safety committee, who must also be shown demonstrations of the experiments and workshops before they are given the green light to be included in the shows.

Kim Lambertsen Larsen also explains that the education and training of the students responsible for the shows has been finetuned to ensure that the shows are conducted with the highest level of safety.

- Four people were injured in the accident in Tønder, and we will do everything we can to ensure that accidents don't happen again in the future, he says.