Creating a Safety Culture
Section 7
The preparation and development of undergraduate chemistry majors should reflect learning in both the classroom and laboratory and occur in a supportive and safe culture. Key aspects of the culture include a safety-first mindset, respect for chemical processes, and safe laboratory experimentation. A safety culture requires appropriate administrative support, infrastructure, curriculum, and instructor training, as well as commitment from all constituencies. Students must be trained to plan for potential safety incidents and how to resolve them for processes they and their colleagues are performing. The goal is the safe practice of our profession.
The guidelines outlined below reflect the need for students to work in a safe laboratory environment and to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to work safely in their future careers. Institutions, faculty, and staff must understand their roles in educating students about safety and in supporting a culture of safety through shared responsibility.
Critical Requirements
Safety Culture
Programs must be conducted in a safe environment & promote a safety culture.
Regulations and Infrastructure
- Programs must have a written chemical hygiene plan that is:
- Consistent with OSHA/state regulations.
- Included in the teaching and research activities of the program.
- Recognizes hazards encountered in teaching and research activities.
- Includes hazardous waste management.
- Properly functioning and appropriate fume hoods, safety showers, eyewashes, first aid kits, and fire extinguishers must be readily available.
- Eyewash and shower stations must be regularly tested and inspected
- Labs must meet applicable OSHA safety regulations.
- Appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) must be readily available to students, staff, and faculty.
- The program establishes and maintains an incident reporting system, an incident investigation system, and an incident database reviewed by the safety committee.
Training and Education
- Programs must instruct students, faculty, and staff in the aspects of modern chemical safety appropriate to their educational level and scientific needs.
- The promotion of safety awareness and skills must begin during the first laboratory experience and should be incorporated into each lab experience thereafter.
- Students must undergo general safety instruction as well as lab-specific instruction before beginning undergraduate research.
- Safety understanding and skills must be developed and assessed throughout the curriculum.
- Programs must provide students with training that allows them to:
- Carry out responsible disposal techniques for both chemicals and damaged glassware,
- Comply with safety regulations.
- Properly use PPE to minimize exposure to hazards,
- Understand the categories of hazards associated with chemicals (health, physical, and environmental),
- Use Safety Data Sheets (SDSs) and other standard printed and online safety reference materials,
- Recognize chemical and physical hazards in laboratories, assess the risks from these hazards, know how to minimize the risks, and prepare for emergencies such as fires, explosions, chemical exposures, injuries, and chemical spills, and
- Properly use emergency equipment (e.g., fire extinguishers, eyewash stations, safety showers, spill kits, first aid kits, fire alarms, and fire blankets).
Normal Expectations
Safety Culture
- Programs should work with administrators on an annual basis to establish institutional support and an adequate budget to maintain safety infrastructure, education, training, and regulatory compliance.
Regulations and Infrastructure
- Safety plans for each space need to recognize the hazards encountered in the instructional and research activities within that space.
- Chemistry classrooms, labs, storage areas, and faculty offices should be in close proximity.
- The number of students supervised by a faculty member or by a teaching assistant in an instructional lab should not exceed 25. Many laboratories require smaller numbers for safe and effective instruction.
- Periodic spot observations of chemical users' safety behaviors in teaching and research laboratories.
Training and Education
- Programs provide students with instruction:
- That allows them to properly select and use personal protective equipment to minimize exposure to hazards.
- In responsible disposal techniques.
- Students learn RAMP (Recognize hazards, Assess the risks of hazards, Minimize the risks of hazards, and Prepare for Emergencies) analyses. As the program progresses, students should learn to conduct these analyses.
- Programs include a RAMP analysis in the development of all new teaching lab experiments.
Markers of Excellence
Safety Culture
- Students recognize that safety is a community endeavor, and every community member plays a role in maintaining a safe environment.
Regulations and Infrastructure
- Programs provide students with instruction about state and federal safety regulations and compliance.
Training and Education
- Students have access to a course in chemical safety and / or toxicology.
- Programs seek reduction of chemical use and hazardous waste generation and embrace green chemistry principles.
- The program establishes a system to promote safety in an institution or department that encompasses electronic communications, printed materials, special seminars, or events discussing or promoting safety / safety moments, a recognition system for good safety performance, and a process to solicit, review, and act on suggestions for improving safety and identifying safety issues.
- Students actively participate in aspects of the safety program (such as the safety committee).
- The administration is actively involved in the safety program.
- Incidents are discussed within the program.
