Ralph,
For me, my "mid-career" change came through preparing (teaching) folks for careers in the chemical industry as laboratory technicians. One of our industry partners recommended creating a stand-alone chemical laboratory safety course for our majors.. We had room in our curriculum to do this and implemented the course the following semester. I know this may not be feasible in many programs, but it worked quite well for us..
So, here are my suggestions for the most valuable resources that were important for me.
*Develop and/or teach a chemical safety course.
*Take on CHO duties for you department.
*Participate in professional development opportunities related to chemical safety - webinars, workshops, etc.
*Actively participate in CHAS, CHED and other divisions and professional associations that have a focus on chemical safety.
*The DCHAS listserv.
*Obtain relevant chemical safety literature (much of it is free!) - Prudent Practices, various ACS resources (see websites - CCS, CHAS, etc.)
*Seek out safety professionals (IH, CSP, etc.) at your institution. They are usually more than willing to help!
Here are a couple of additional items that have helped me, but to a lesser extent than those mentioned above.
*Do outreach and chemical demonstrations - or supervise them. The preparation for these activities should include a detailed hazard analysis - what could possibly go wrong and how can I prevent it. Considerations must also be made tor transportation, set up and waste disposal. There are a myriad of resources out there that can help with this. The safety concepts can also be extended back to the teaching lab and vice versa.
*Analysis of an incident or near-miss. How many times have we had an incident or a near-miss in the teaching lab? Doing a detailed analysis of the incident will help understand why the incident happened in the first place. For example, lacerations are a common lab injury. When I first started in my teaching career long ago, a student in a colleague's lab next door to mine pushed a glass tubing through the palm of his hand. That incident forever changed how our department dealt with inserting tubing into stoppers. In fact, those simulated videos still bother me!
Kirk Hunter
Waxahachie, Texas
