Letters: November 2026 | Opinion

Helping to highlight hazards

As a chemist, process safety professional and chair of the Institiute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) Safety and Loss Prevention Subject Interest Group, I took great interest in Chemjobber’s article on the recent incident at the GKN Aerospace site in Garden Grove, Florida in the US.

Chemjobber makes some very important points about the difference in consequence between the laboratory and industrial scale processes, but I would like to remind the Chemistry World readership that even at lab scale, life changing and fatal incidents can occur, especially when handling ‘energetic’, flammable or autocatalytic reagents.

The US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) reports on the 2010 Texas University lab explosion and the death of Sheri Sangji at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2008 as well as many other incidents should be reviewed by anyone coming into the proximity of such compounds or experiments.

To support learning and to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, the IChemE, the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and the US CSB produce ‘lessons learned’ and incident reports to be used both by professional and operational staff to improve safety performance. An example that came to mind when reading about the GKN incident was the similar loss of cooling leading to an incident at T2 Laboratories in Florida in 2007.

I would urge any chemists working in industry to participate in process hazard studies such as HAZOP, and challenge the engineers on their assumptions. Your diversity of opinion and experience of ‘difficulties’ at the laboratory and development scale could save a life at production scale.


David Threlfall MRSC CChem
Via email

Fascinating photochemical phenomena

I found the research article on the mismatch between molecular absorbance and photochemical reactivity, ‘Overturning one of photochemistry’s oldest dogmas’, both interesting and reassuring.

In the early 1990s, I too observed this phenomenon during an investigation of photo-degradation of dyes in solution. I discussed the results with colleagues and was told they made no sense. I agreed there was no clear explanation and no further work was done.

That decision was not made because the data was disbelieved. It was because I realised that there were too many possible reasons for the observations. Finding the explanation could be the stuff of more than one PhD thesis.

The authors are to be applauded for their perseverance. I have never been aware of any dogma pronouncing that the wavelength dependency of the reactant extinction coefficient should mirror that of the overall reaction quantum yield. To do so would completely ignore the myriad photo-physical processes that can occur after photon absorption, interfering surface effects, the photochemistry of aggregates, complexes, intermediates, photoproducts, contaminants and, yes, solvent/matrix effects, not to mention emission characteristics of the light source.

Perhaps, ultimately, human acceptance of extraordinary phenomena demands extraordinary levels of evidence and argument.

Michael Hawkins MRSC
Via email

Revised defective blocks standard

I beg to refer to the erudite article by Mason Wakley ‘Why are buildings cracking-up in Ireland’. After six years in the making the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) published its revised IS 465, the testing protocol that underpins the State’s defective blocks grant scheme. While the original IS 465, drafted in 2018, focused on mica and pyrite as causes of defective concrete, the 2026 revision acknowledges that iron sulfide minerals such as pyrrhotite causes extensive cracking in blocks and concrete.

The revised standard acknowledges the presence of mica on its own can adversely affect the compressive strength and durability of concrete. Its role as an accelerator of internal sulfate attack also causes severe and rapid degradation of blocks.

Concrete housing foundations must also be included in the test. Changes in the underlying NSAI standard governing the IS 465 will also trigger a review of remediation pursuant to the terms of the Defective Concrete Block Amendment Act 2025.

Gerry Coughlan MRSC
Dublin, Ireland

Working at the bench, and beyond

I enjoyed Derek Lowe’s article ‘Chemistry contains multitudes’, and agree with its central premise that chemistry accommodates a wide range of personalities and working styles.

However, I was struck that most of the ‘multitudes’ described still sit firmly within the laboratory. As a Chartered Chemist working in environmental remediation and technical leadership, I rarely wear a lab coat or carry out experiments myself. Instead, I spend my time integrating chemistry with engineering, data management, environmental regulation, risk management and people leadership.

The profession increasingly includes chemists whose value lies not in synthesising molecules or running analyses, but in applying chemical thinking to complex real-world systems and societal challenges. These careers are every bit as chemical as more traditional laboratory roles.

Chemistry certainly contains multitudes, but I would argue those multitudes extend well beyond the bench and, yes, there is a need for us all!

Christopher Satterley CChem FRSC
Via email

Stung by honey laundering

Concerning the article on honey fraud (Chemistry World, September 2026, p30), involving adulteration with high fructose corn syrup and the like, I came across a much simpler fraud in the UK in the 1970s.

A successful business was set up in the West Country to supply gift shops in holiday area with small pots of (overpriced) ‘regional’ honeys such as Devon, Dorset or Somerset honey. An inspection of the premises by Trading Standards discovered an operation that filtered out natural pollen from cheap imported honey (from Australia, Turkey or Argentina for example) and added back some ‘regional’ pollen. A sweet little earner.

David Snodin FRSC
Via email