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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 k2. Possibilities for the prevention of hazardsTopics related to responsible guidance for lab courses intended for students werelisted, and legal regulations were discussed. This included considerations concerningthe use of appropriate personal protective equipment as well as appropriate buildings,structures and laboratory equipment. The teaching staff are instructed about howto adhere to threshold limit values, to minimize exposure (see the example below)and to collect all available information about hazardous substances (references werenamed).3. Information related to good laboratory practiceThis chapter offers numerous suggestions on how to organise lab courses includingproper management by motivation. Examples for experiments which help in thelearning of safe laboratory practice are presented. Additionally it provides advice onhow to write laboratory user guides and lab course manuals. This includes questionsconcerning rooms, flues, protective equipment, techniques, and handling ofemergency situations, as well as the establishment of working conditions which avoidstress.4. Discussion related to didacticsStatements are presented related to the question about whether students shouldstart working with hazardous chemicals during lab courses in the university, andwhich is the best moment during education to start to handle these issues.5. Practical experiences and sources of errorThis chapter describes aspects of work hygiene. Possibilities for the disposal ofsubstances with different chemical properties are discussed. Typical mistakesmade when students pour or decant chemicals are named. Students and teacherswere cautioned about stress as a possible origin of dangerous situations, and wereinstructed on how to prevent stress.In addition to the structure described above, any item can be searched for using anintegrated search-engine. In the future the website will be expanded to provide anopen forum for discussion.Problems facedNeither of the project teams reported that there were any major problems during thedevelopment and implementation process.Generally speaking, the most important challenge for both platforms, as forany internet-based information portal, is to keep it up-to-date with the relevantinformation: each change in European or national legislation may result in a substantialrenewal of data. One example to be confronted will be the inclusion of the GloballyHarmonised System of classification and labelling (GHS) into both platforms.The KMR information platform is currently under reconstruction due to new legislationconcerning the handling of dangerous substances. Nevertheless, the 2005 versioncan still be completely accessed online and its instructions can still be recommendedfor use. The new version will be launched as soon as the new decrees on laboratorysafety are adopted.36
Mainstreaming occupational safety and health into university educationSuccess factorsOne key success factor can be seen in the comprehensible way in which both theseinformation platforms provide good practice information. Both NOP-online and KMRused personal, practical teaching experiences in their development. Both are goodexamples of how teams of researchers can pool information and experience andshare the overall burden by working together. Like this, both websites were able to beelaborated in a very comprehensive and user-friendly way.The multilingual content of NOP-online allows the direct access to good practiceinformation for users all around the world. This makes the platform highly attractivefor direct use in other countries.In the case of KMR, the platform also contains information on legal requirements,which is not something that can usually be said to be very popular with scientists andteaching staff. By collecting all relevant legal information, KMR contributes efficientlyto a better understanding of legal demands and thus of questions of responsibilityand liability.Another key success factor of KMR is that the information on safe handling of CMRsubstances is not presented as stand-alone information but is embedded in generallaboratory instructions of the university’s website.E 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 kEvaluation of the measuresDatabases such as these are not an end in themselves. Their existence does not meanthat OSH has necessarily been successfully mainstreamed into chemistry education.They are a tool to support OSH education as part of the curriculum of chemistryteaching, specifically in this case to support training in laboratory safety. They areof limited value if they are purely stand-alone and not part of a broader educationand training initiative. However, electronic databases can help to provide a consistentapproach, make information widely available and make it widely accessible. To bemost useful they need to include guidance for lecturers and trainers in their use as ateaching aid and resource.Both websites are very useful since they provide ready to use information, whichhelps to improve safety during university lab courses. Students, as well as the teachingstaff, become more aware concerning the handling of hazardous substances, and theresources permit access to all the necessary information and regulations.NOP-online is used in organic chemistry lab courses in the Universities of Bremenand Regensburg. At both universities, the teaching staff are satisfied with the ease ofaccess and ready-to-use information design.At the university level, KMR is currently used in laboratory training sessions at theparticipating universities (Berlin, Bielefeld, Marburg, and Essen-Duisburg). In theseuniversities, all participants in lab training sessions are given strict instruction aboutsafety issues. The most important good practice information is collated into onedocument (Lehmann 2006), which is the most popular download from the KMRhomepage.The general success of both online information platforms cannot be measured incommercial terms because of their character as freely accessible online manuals.Nonetheless it can be quantified with the help of the log-in statistics of the37
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TE-WE-09-007-EN-CIn order to improv
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