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3 Laboratory Safety in Chemical Research in Academic Settings
Pages 45-70

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From page 45...
... To ensure consistent, institutional involvement in establishing and maintaining a strong, positive, laboratory safety culture, participation in promoting safety must be encouraged at all levels, including members of senior university administration, provost and college and school deans, research administrators, environmental health and safety (EHS) , department chairs, faculty and principal investigators, and lab researchers.
From page 46...
... This core element of a strong, positive safety culture has not been developed in depth in other reviews; however, an understanding of the specific interactions, needs, and attributes of entities that are in direct contact with the research bench itself -- the faculty/principal investigator, lab researchers, and EHS -- is critical to development of sustainable change in academic research safety culture. LABORATORY RESEARCH SAFETY What Is Laboratory Safety?
From page 47...
... Evidence from other domains reviewed in Chapter 2 suggests that an effective way to promote a culture of safety in academic laboratories is to change the current training paradigm to incorporate not only regulatory awareness, but also in-depth work with safety concepts and practices that are central to research in the individual laboratory. Research practices that incorporate explicit analysis of the hazards and risks of planned work into research proposals and publications may promote better laboratory safety by preparing researchers to plan experiments with a critical assessment of and preparation for unexpected and potentially dangerous situations.
From page 48...
... Various parties have often reported confusion or lack of information about the specific roles of other "players" and how these roles are interconnected. CHARACTERISTICS OF UNIVERSITY-BASED RESEARCH ORGANIZATIONS College and university organizations vary in many aspects, but most share some common characteristics that affect the focus, attention, and oversight provided for laboratory safety and the factors that contribute to their safety cultures.
From page 49...
... Just as the mayor or city manager does not order business owners to adopt fixed safety practices, but rather relies on inspections, fines, or (rarely) closures to provide business owners with incentives to maintain safe workplaces, so too do academic institutions rely on EHS surveys to provide the faculty with information, tools, and facilities to guide their safety practices.
From page 50...
... Newer research facilities may be designed with better engineering controls, but current designs that focus on efficient and flexible use of research spaces may contribute to overall higher risk to laboratory research occupants. For example, modern open-space laboratories that place the researcher desks and computer workspaces in close proximity to the research activity can be problematic because this approach places individual lab members who might be writing immediately adjacent to areas of chemicals use and storage.
From page 51...
... The faculty member also has to ensure and certify that the grant funding is managed and used properly in the conduct of the research activity and also comply with all the administrative work requirements of the grant agencies and host institution. A 2007 survey completed as part of the Federal Demonstration Project (FDP)
From page 52...
... With this concern, group members may avoid asking questions or engaging others in discussions about laboratory safety. Because of the nature of academic research laboratories as a training ground for new researchers in academic programs, there is a significant turnover of the laboratory research population.
From page 53...
... The rationale for this requirement may be that a longer term exposure gives the students, principal investigator, and group members a chance to get to know each other better and thus make a more well-considered decision about which group to join on a permanent basis. In other parts of this report, we have stated our agreement with departments that require general safety training for all incoming research workers, including first-year students.
From page 54...
... As noted in the NRC's Prudent Practices report, "leadership by those in charge ensures that an effective safety program is embraced by all. Even a well-conceived safety program will be treated casually by researchers and others if it is neglected by top management."9 Common academic administrative structures may dilute the commitment that senior academic leadership makes to laboratory safety.
From page 55...
... Rapidly changing priorities and expectations, coupled with the increasing pace of turnover in senior leadership,10 require that leaders in this environment build a management team that shares clear expectations and partnerships across academic and administrative units to foster laboratory safety and an institutional safety culture. Provosts and College and School Deans Horizontal academic organizational hierarchies often lead to centralized institutional programs, such as compliance programs and safety programs.
From page 56...
... In many academic research organizations, the research, development, and compliance programs report to the head of the research organization, while the institutional safety programs, including laboratory safety, report through a different branch of the organization, often through the facilities or financial administration structures. This can lead to a lack of accountability among the safety line management, the facilities management, the academic and research management, and the faculty-led research programs within the laboratories themselves.
From page 57...
... A small, but growing group of universities are requiring EHS to report through the senior research management programs, typically at the vice provost/vice president or higher level, which better aligns the EHS programs within the academic management system and may allow better access to overall research management. However, this trend is not widespread, and ensuring appropriate organizational reporting of EHS should be included as part of any review of an organization's overall safety culture to ensure optimal effectiveness and alignment.13 12  Aon Global Risk Consulting.
From page 58...
... If EHS staff are the only, or the primary, people with direct laboratory contact with the students to talk about safety, a reasonable interpretation is that, "the people responsible for safety are the staff from EHS." Many EHS programs have professional staff able to consult on laboratory safety, but laboratory researchers should understand that EHS does not necessarily have, and in most cases cannot be expected to have, the same level and depth of focused technical skills needed to address the many diverse technical science research projects that take place concurrently in academic research on a campus. This lack of clarity and understanding of the role and authority of EHS can lead to negative attitudes on the part of faculty, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, as well as cloud the roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities for safety within the academic research laboratory.
From page 59...
... At some institutions, EHS and other personnel meet with faculty to ensure that the space and facilities are appropriate to the work planned and that the faculty member has the technical expertise to conduct the work and to train others to do so; at others, the new faculty member may only be issued a key and good wishes. A strong safety culture may make limited use of papers and grants as proxies for safety attitudes and actions, but rather be characterized by respectful inquisitiveness, by the chair or other senior faculty and by EHS, about a new faculty colleague's technical proficiencies and safety practices.
From page 60...
... Principal Investigators Principal investigators (academic research faculty members) play crucial and primary roles in laboratory safety and in development and maintenance of an effective safety culture within their research groups and within their departments.
From page 61...
... The role that the faculty member has in providing leadership and setting the stage for promoting and advancing the laboratory research safety culture is often absent from many research groups. Studies of safety cultures in other types of organizations suggest that perceptions about institutional commitment to safety play a significant role in faculty actions.
From page 62...
... Trainees' perceptions of reward structures and expectations may contribute to a view that "time spent on safety is time not spent on my dissertation research." The committee heard experienced postdoctoral researchers and graduate students indicate that they feel disconnected from safety in their own laboratory. Although they may take online safety training, complete safety training quizzes, and so forth, safety practices are not consistent within or across research laboratories in a division, department, or institution.
From page 63...
... Additionally, it appears that for many laboratory researchers, formal safety education begins and ends with generic, and often online, safety training. While online materials or face-to-face lectures, and their associated assessments, can be effective ways to impart basic information about regulatory requirements and safe practices for laboratory work, they cannot substitute for engaging in the actions themselves.
From page 64...
... However, there are differences in whether regulatory agencies are effective or even have jurisdiction over some academic centers, depending on the type and location of the university or college. In some instances, federal agencies do not provide regulatory oversight for state agencies, including state public universities, while in others, such oversight by state and/or federal agencies is common.
From page 65...
... There are many accreditation programs for teaching and for research management, but these programs do not typically touch on issues of overall safety culture development in laboratories. By emphasizing a robust laboratory safety culture as critical for accreditation, the programs could provide additional support and incentive for enhancing and advancing safety culture at academic institutions.
From page 66...
... Internal audits seldom review management systems for the school or college's laboratory safety programs. However, some institutions have begun to include school and department management systems for safety and safety culture within the internal audit purview and review process.
From page 67...
... For example, issues with desk space located in close proximity to working lab space is of concern for several reasons: First, for researchers to reach their desks, they have to pass through laboratory space requiring personal protective equipment, which is inconvenient at best and hazardous at worst. Second, individuals are concerned about their personal safety while working at their desks, particularly in cases where those desks are located close to another researcher's experimental work area as incidents occurring within other students' work areas could affect them.
From page 68...
... 2. Articulation of clear roles, responsibilities, authorities, and accountabilities for those directly involved in research safety within the laboratory, namely the faculty/principal investigator, laboratory researchers, and EHS staff that support lab safety.
From page 69...
... What is needed is a better understanding of how these three major players can most effectively work together to advance the safety culture. Identifying the key attributes of advanced safety cultures in academic research labs and how each of the major players supports such advanced cultures will allow individual programs to better assess their existing programs and assign the roles, responsibilities, authorities, and accountabilities for laboratory safety culture advancement in academic research.


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