The photo that accompanied the “Grants, Awards and Freebies” column [Oct. 5] depicts an unsafe laboratory practice. Before starting a laboratory exercise, goggles are made available to students and students are told all “long hair” should be tied back.

The young lady in the photo has long hair untied and is in close proximity to the flame of the Bunsen burner. As AFT President Randi Weingarten would say, it’s “an accident waiting to happen.”

Please let us, in our school laboratories and UFT newspaper, encourage students to practice safe work habits.

Catherine Henihan, retired