Hi Jonathan,

I would be happy to chat with you about this.

It's not the regulations or laws. It's about best practices and making it less likely that a student gets injured. From a liability point of view ( and based on 40 years of serving as an expert witness), you can't win the lawsuit that might follow.

If the student is also doing this as part of the work-study program, they need to be treated as an employee.

Please call if you would like to discuss further.

Regards ... Jim

PS. LSI now has virtual lab inspections, safety program evaluations, document reviews, plus courses and seminars ... all virtual

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On Tue, Jul 5, 2022 at 1:58 PM Jonathan Dannatt <jdannatt**At_Symbol_Here**udallas.edu> wrote:

Dear Reader,

I am Jonathan Dannatt. I am a fairly new assistant professor at a primarily undergraduate institution, University of Dallas and was hoping you could guide me and our department a bit.

We are currently re-writing our chemical hygiene plan and came across a dilemma. We are unsure if there are laws or ACS guidance surrounding undergraduate research students to perform simple, PI approved tasks in the lab while the PI is not present. For example, if on a Saturday a water bath needs to be filled or a reflux needs to be stopped, are there laws or safety regulations prohibiting a pair of students coming into the lab and completing this task? Is there any specific ACS guidance in this area?

Again thank you for any advice or assistance you can provide.

Best regards,

Jonathan

--

Jonathan Dannatt, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Chemistry University of Dallas O: (972) 721-5065 E: jdannatt**At_Symbol_Here**udallas.edu W: Website, Linkedin

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