Re: What were they thinking?
Such things are de rigeur in many sorts of science lab, usually above a shallow drain in the floor. Back when we squirted phenol/chloroform about to clean up bacteria grown dna (now done via nifty spin columns) we had a wash bottle of PEG 2000 handy, for putting in your or someone else's eyes if they got phenol in them.
I was once sitting at the bench in shorts and a drop of p/c fell from the pipette tip and hit my bare thigh. it BURNED.
Women allow phenol solutions to be applied to their faces for 'face peels'. A lot less concentrated than 50% mind but burns have happened when the dilution went wrong. The idea gives me the heebie-jeebies.
Do NOT fuck with phenol.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
