Safety Moments in Chemical Safety Education

• Jeffrey M. Ting ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Chicago

     University of Chicago

     City of Chicago, Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Journal of chemical education, ISSN 0021-9584, Vol. 98, Nº 1, 2021, págs. 9-14
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Chemical safety education is a critical aspect of an integrated culture of safety in academic research settings. Showcasing best practices and sharing practical solutions for recognizing hazards and minimizing risks represent one way of reinforcing a research community’s actions, attitudes, and behavior toward safety. For goals of improving chemical safety education with nonformal endeavors, safety moments are ∼1–2 slides that focus on raising awareness and knowledge for routine safety issues in research laboratories. Intended to catalyze brief discussions at the beginning of meetings and presentations, these materials provide a proactive way for students and faculty to engage in open communication on diverse research safety topics across science and engineering. This commentary provides an overview of designing effective safety moments and tailoring them to highlight practical safety needs and considerations. Key components of model safety moment slides are presented, alongside centralized resources assembled by student-led laboratory safety teams, which can also be extended to posters, social media platforms, online videos, and other forms of scientific communication. Combined with both top-down backing from institution leaders and bottom-up support from student researchers, safety moments remain a low-barrier risk reduction strategy that is easy to implement, encourages local dialogue on safety, combats complacency, and holds potential for facilitating long-term improvements to academic lab safety culture.