Chemical Safety Practices Research Articles

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices about Chemical Laboratory Safety of the Faculty, Staff and Students of Kalinga State University

Objectives: This study investigated the perception of the students, faculty members, and staff of Kalinga State University about chemical safety in the laboratories, including their familiarization with chemical hazards and warning symbols. Methods: A sample size of 124 respondents, primarily females, were 10 faculty members, a University Official, and one hundred thirteen (113) students. A questionnaire was used to collect data which were analyzed using descriptive statistics. In the questionnaire, at least 32 questions were used with five sections: demographic data, different GHS pictograms, and approach to safety in chemical laboratories, the practice of students within the laboratory, and knowledge and familiarity with emergency equipment and procedures to assess their knowledge, attitudes, and practices on their familiarity and understanding of chemical hazards in the laboratories. In addition, a semi-structured interview was done after answering the questionnaires to gain deeper insight from the respondents on their knowledge, attitudes, and practices about safety while working in the laboratory. Findings: Descriptive statistics conveyed that students, faculty, and staff demonstrated poorly on familiarity and understanding of chemical hazards and warning symbols. Students displayed a poor attitude towards chemical safety but demonstrated fair responses to chemical safety practices. Though faculty and staff displayed fair attitudes towards chemical safety and practices, educational reinforcement and conduct of safety ethics and risk management in the chemical laboratory are recommended for the subjects in charge. The study concluded and recommended that an in-depth education and training need to be implemented for all university students on testing facilities, chemical safety devices, and other standard protocols encountered in the laboratory parallel to the suggestions and recommendations of fellow researchers in the field(1). (Ejilemele & Ojule, 2005) Keywords: Chemical safety; chemical hazards; emergency equipment; safety devices; standard protocols

Investigating Chemical Safety Awareness and Practices in Nigerian Schools

Chemical safety, a practice of protecting humans and the environment in which they work and live from the deleterious effects of chemical substances, was investigated in this study in Nigerian secondary schools. Using a mixed-method survey, we investigated the awareness level and implementation of the best practices of chemical safety by 1246 senior secondary school chemistry students. Students in rural schools were found to have a lower level of awareness of chemical safety compared to the students in urban schools. Statistically significant differences were found in all except one of the awareness measures—washing hands before practicals and after leaving the chemistry lab. Urban students were more in breach of chemical safety practices than students in rural schools. Most of the observed differences were statistically significant (p < 0.001). Interview (qualitative) data from 20 students show four emerging themes to explain the findings, including a low level of chemistry laboratory resourcing, poor chemical safety training of the teachers, inadequacies in safety tools, charts, and kits, and weak enforcement of safety regulations. Based on the data from the study, recommendations were made for bolstering the awareness level of students in chemical safety and their chemical safety practices. These include the incorporation of chemical safety in the core curriculum, requiring quality assurance entities to enforce resourcing of basic safety equipment to schools, government-directed workshops on the need for chemical safety, and requiring teachers to provide chemical hazards information to students.

Factors Influencing Australian Agricultural Workers' Self-Efficacy Using Chemicals in the Workplace

A hypothetical model was formulated to explore which factors can simultaneously influence the self-reported ability of agricultural employees to embrace chemical safety practices. Eight variables were considered in the study, including the employees' gender, age, duration of current employment status, and whether they were employed full-time or part-time. The self-efficacy measures of 169 participants were then estimated by measuring their self-rated ability to understand and perform different chemical safety practices. Models identifying employee self-efficacy pathways leading to worker readiness to engage in chemical safety were then tested using Partial Least Squares Path Analysis. Study results suggest that employees' self-efficacy to successfully engage in safe chemical practices in their workplace can be directly predicted by four variables, with additional indirect effects offered by one other variable, which cumulatively account for 41% of the variance of employees' chemical safety self-efficacy scores. The most significant predictor variables that directly influenced employees' self-efficacy in adopting chemical safety practices in the workplace were worker age, gender, years of employment, and concurrent confidence (self-efficacy) arising from prior experience using chemicals in the workplace. The variables of employees' prior knowledge and understanding about the use of administrative controls and personal protective equipment to protect workers from chemical exposure had no direct influence on self-efficacy to handle chemical emergencies. Employees' unfamiliarity with risk control strategies and reliance on material safety data sheets for information suggest that ongoing and targeted training are necessary if chemical safety issues are to be addressed.

Chemical safety levels (CSLs): A proposal for chemical safety practices in microbiological and biomedical laboratories

Microbiological and biomedical laboratories handle chemicals of various hazards in many diverse ways and quantities. Although there are biosafety levels that classify laboratories by the hazard of the biological agent and its use, there are no similar guidelines for classifying chemical safety practices. We propose a system for using chemical safety levels (CSLs) in these laboratories. These CSLs, CSL1 (low risk), CSL2 (moderate risk), CSL3 (substantial risk), and CSL4 (high risk), are classified by the chemical hazards and the nature of the work in which these chemicals are used in the laboratory. Risk at each CSL is governed by limiting or restricting chemical usage or type of work. Standard and CSL specific safe practices, equipment, and facilities requirements are proposed. This work is presented as a starting basis for developing a CSL system, and additional details and modifications will be finalized through a pilot project.

Settlement or Litigation? For Union Carbide, That Is the Question

Inevitably, in the two months since the Bhopal disaster, attention has shifted from the misery of the victims to the dry facts of what happened. Those who are immersed in the Bhopal aftermath—Union Carbide, governments, judiciary, attorneys, other chemical companies—generally agree there are two chief goals on which to focus: compensating the victims and making sure, by improving chemical safety practices, that an industrial accident of the magnitude of that at Bhopal never takes place again. What these parties cannot agree upon at this point, unsurprisingly, is how those goals should be met. For Union Carbide, resolving the compensation question is the issue of the moment. Until that is accomplished, the company will keep its front-page notoriety, its management's attention will be distracted, its stock price will remain the unstable correlative of news reports, its debt rating will remain downgraded, and its legal bill will keep rising. The accident already has hit Carbide in ...