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Mainstreaming occupational safety and health into university educationE u r o p e a n Ag e n c y f o r Sa f e t y a n d He a l t h a t Wo r kchemistry studies at universities (for more information on the project see also: Rankeet al. 2004).The website ‘handling of carcinogenic, mutagenic and reproduction toxicsubstances in lab courses (KMR/CMR-dangerous substances in lab courses)’ canbe seen as an instruction manual in case of exposure to these substances in universitychemical lab courses. It is an online information platform which is freely accessible.This website resulted from a vigorous debate as to whether chemistry studentsshould actually work with substances which can cause cancer, genetic alterations orteratogenesis in their lab courses and if so, how they should start to do it.Three opinions were debated: the most radical opinion was to ban all CMR-dangeroussubstances from students’ lab experiments whenever possible. Working techniquesfor low emission work should be demonstrated first by using non-toxic substances.Other opinions were aimed more at challenging and preparing students ‘on-thejob’,where responsibility and self-assuredness could be developed through trainingduring lab courses in a real experimental environment. The whole discussion and itsarguments with regard to practice and didactics are documented on the website.(Grumbach, Lehmann, Schween, 2001).This discussion was the stimulus for T. Lehmann (FU Berlin), M. Schween (U Marburg)and H.J. Grumbach of the Statutory Accident Insurance for the Public Sector of North-Rhine Westfalia to create a sophisticated website that would demonstrate how towork safely in lab experiments, even with very hazardous substances, and also toprovide didactic guidelines for teaching staff.Aims and objectivesBoth projects aim to provide students, as well as teaching staff, with readily accessibleinformation concerning responsible and safe handling of chemicals and hazardoussubstances. Both projects are designed to work on an online platform which providesgood-practice instructions.The main concern of both databases differs slightly: the key aspect of the ‘NOPonline’project is sustainability and responsibility related to the environment as wellas general safety issues. Its approach means that NOP-online contributes to the ‘GreenChemistry Mission’ which encourages chemical technologies that reduce or eliminatethe use and generation of hazardous substances in design, manufacture, and use ofchemical products. (See also: NOP-online 2005).The project, ‘KMR/CMR-dangerous substances in lab courses’, pays attentionto personal safety and health as well as didactic aspects. It is closely related to theGerman legislation on the safe handling of dangerous substances. It is mainly aimedat teaching staff in laboratory courses and can be used as guidance for the safehandling of CMR substances.ScopeFirst example: NOP-online / Sustainability in organic chemistry lab coursesFunded by: Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU / German Federal EnvironmentalFoundation)NOP-online provides a well-organised and easy to comprehend structure on theprincipal website. Information is clustered in different categories. The user can selectbetween information on experiments, substances, and working techniques. He/she32
Mainstreaming occupational safety and health into university educationcan also obtain an overview of general aspects about the background of the NOPproject,the NOP-project team, and the idea of sustainability in chemistry studies.Figure 1: NOP-online homepageE u r o p e a n Ag e n c y f o r Sa f e t y a n d He a l t h a t Wo r kScreenshot taken from http://www.oc-praktikum.de/index.php?page=entry&lang=en)The principal item of the website is a collection of descriptions for experiments inorganic chemistry. Experiments can be browsed by title, NOP-no, working technique,substance class, and reaction type. Keywords can be added via the search-string. Resultsare displayed in standard forms giving links to more precise and detailed information onoperating schemes, substances, equipment, evaluation and analytics, and user comments.In order to cover the broad variety of sustainability and toxicology issues, the projectteam mainstreamed some 100 different laboratory experiments in an online database.Detailed laboratory instructions, safety instructions and analyses instructions andfurther information on sustainability issues are given with every experiment description.The following illustration gives an impression of how the standard forms are used:Figure 2: NOP-online standard form for experiment instructionsScreen shot taken from webpage http://www.oc-praktikum.de/en-experiment-200333
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TE-WE-09-007-EN-CIn order to improv
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