Laboratory safety could be substantially improved if the students receive a
n education in laboratory safety beginning when they are undergraduates and
 continuing through graduate school.  

This is an education issue, not simply a training issue.  This requires tha
t students learn to identify and recognize chemical, biological, and physic
al hazards, they learn how to carry out assessments of their laboratory ope
rations, they learn how to control, manage, and minimize exposures to hazar
ds, and they learn how to react in emergencies.  To build a positive safety
 culture requires a long-term commitment to educating students on a frequen
t basis (each time they go into the lab) about laboratory safety from the f
aculty and teaching staff of an educational institution. 

Albert Schweitzer once said something like "Example is not the main thing i
nfluencing people. It is the only thing."  The faculty and staff must learn
 to become leaders in laboratory safety for this to happen. This requires a
 significant change in thinking about laboratory safety - educating in labo
ratory safety must become an integral part of the chemistry educational pro
cess from the very beginning and throughout the entire curriculum. 
 

Robert H. Hill, Jr., Ph.D
Program Manager, Atlanta Analytical Services
Battelle Memorial Institute
Century Plaza 1, 2987 Clairmont Road, Suite 450
Atlanta, Georgia 30329
Tel       404-460-1453
Fax      404-460-1441
Cell      678-362-3040
Email   hillr**At_Symbol_Here**battelle.org
 

-----Original Message-----
From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Li
st Moderator
Sent: Friday, May 08, 2009 3:45 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] : Legal aspects of CalOSHA & UCLA/Change Focus

From: "Carl Zipfel" 
Date: May 8, 2009 3:42:01 PM EDT (CA)
Subject: RE: [DCHAS-L] : Legal aspects of CalOSHA & UCLA/Change Focus

 > How adequate are the safety training programs for both students and  
employees in academic institutions?
 > Are academic institutions providing appropriate training and safe  
working environments for students and employees to work in academic  
laboratories?
 >Are academic institutions providing adequate   safety training to  
students who will  enter the private sector work force?

Actually, a couple of very good questions.

1 - Universities can't train for many varied issues that a new  
employee will potentially faced at industrial establishments.  This is  
a necessity done best at that work place.  What institutions can do is  
to teach students how safety requirements are important for their own  
protection.  This does require that they develop and enforce proper  
protective processes at their laboratories, and teach why these are  
important.

2 - The best way to minimize accidents, in any environment, is to  
engage in appropriate and proper "risk assessment". Proper procedures  
and hazard minimization will always flow form an appropriate, honest,  
risk assessment, and hazard minimization program.

3 - Would it not be wonderful if every chemistry, and engineering,  
student, was taught basic fault-tree, and what-if, analysis.

Carl Zipfel csp

EHS Management Systems LLC
www.ehsmanagementsystems.com

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