This training video was produced by the University of London Audio-Visual Centre (ULAVC), which made more than 1,000 teaching programmes on video, film and tape-slide. Their programmes were relatively low budget ventures - and in this case conveying the safety message was clearly a higher priority than any sophisticated production values.

After some brief establishing shots of a university laboratory, the narrator rapidly gets to the point, asking 'just what should be your priorities in the event of an accident like this in your laboratory?' In most cases the answer is surprisingly simple and involves washing with plenty of water - and sometimes soap too - as soon as possible. This reassuringly (or alarmingly?) basic approach is even applied to radioactive materials - 'Don't be frightened by radioactive materials - the same applies: lots of water, as quickly as possible', says Dr Tom Kelly, though he does add that it is then vital to take the casualty to hospital to be decontaminated.

The video features the students and staff of the Department of Chemistry, Birkbeck College, University of London. Many universities had their own audio-visual production centres, making teaching programmes on film and video, and the University of London was one of the last universities to establish theirs, which was set up in 1968 and closed in 1991. It specialised in medical videos, which reportedly reflected a perception of the more advanced level of media skills across the lecturers in this area compared with other academic departments.

Trevor A. Scott, the director of this programme, was one of the most prolific makers of videos for ULAVC.