ISBN 978-0-8412-2817-7

The elements of a strong safety cultureLeadership and Management of Safety in the Academic InstitutionThe safety culture of an institution plays a critical role in setting the tone for the importanceplaced upon safety by its members. Leaders are the key to building a strong culture of safety.Leaders inspire others to value safety, seek open and transparent communications to build trust,lead by example, accept responsibility for safety, and hold others accountable for safety. Thedirection for and strength of the safety culture is determined by its leaders. In the academic arenathe lines of authority should be clearly flowing from the president and provost to college deans,to department chairs, to faculty and principal investigators, and staff; however, these lines ofauthority are not always observed or enforced, especially due to the responsibility for safety beingrelegated to individual departments. As a result the authority often rests with the departmentchairs; the senior, tenured faculty; and the principal investigators, and they may not alwaysaccept responsibility for safety. Nevertheless safety is an educational responsibility.Teaching Basic Laboratory and Chemical Safety through Continuous Learningand Spiral EducationWithin a strong safety culture, safety knowledge should build year after year throughout theundergraduate curriculum and continue into graduate studies, so that upon graduation, chemistrygraduates have superior safety skills and strong safety ethics.Safety concerns apply across all chemistry and related fields. Everyone using chemistry in theircareers needs strong knowledge and skills to work safely in a laboratory. A strong safety culturedevelops superior safety skills and strong safety ethics by building year after year, beginning with thefirst year undergraduate curricula and continuing through the entire undergraduate experience andinto graduate studies and postdoctoral training. Building a strong base of knowledge and skills inlaboratory safety throughout the undergraduate course of study requires teaching numerous safetytopics. More than 80 suggested laboratory safety topics are presented in this report, as are numerousresources for preparing laboratory safety lessons. Designated staff and faculty, senior undergraduatestudents, graduate teaching assistants, and postdoctoral scholars who teach laboratory sessionsshould have a thorough understanding of laboratory safety and know what to teach and how toteach it.The laboratory is a unique environment. Hazard identification, hazard assessment, and hazardmanagement—collectively known as hazards analysis—in laboratory operations (includingresearch) are critical skills that need to be part of all undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoraleducation. Learning how to prepare for emergencies is also a critical skill. It is important toremember that some hazards may not have been identified, assessed, or managed correctlywhen the laboratory operation was designed. Safety is an integral part of all laboratory operationsbut it requires that the laboratory worker consider this every time they start work. In this way,the process of hazards analysis becomes an integral part of the laboratory process, just like thescientific method.5