Chemical safety articles from across Nature Portfolio

The Chemical Weapons Convention has a unique Scientific Advisory Board that ensures it keeps pace with science, and its implementing body is prepared for future challenges. It is a model that could be usefully applied to other disarmament treaties.

Annemarie Purmer discusses the importance of a sharing and inclusive safety culture in the hydrogen sector.

An important but difficult separation, the removal of carbon monoxide from humid gas mixtures comprising oxygen, nitrogen and hydrocarbons, is addressed by exploiting Cu(I) coordination chemistry and framework flexibility.

Fires are relatively common yet underreported occurrences in chemical laboratories, but their consequences can be devastating. Here we describe our first-hand experience of a savage laboratory fire, highlighting the detrimental effects that it had on the research group and the lessons learned.

The harmonized classification of titanium dioxide as a suspected carcinogen has the potential to misinform consumers and promote aversive behaviour. The case exemplifies the limits of a hazard-based classification system that should not be used without exposure assessment in downstream, sector-specific legislation.

Two Q&As in this issue consider aspects of chemical safety in industry and academia. And when it comes to the latter, a Review Article concludes that much more research is required to better understand — and improve — safety in academic laboratories.