An Approach To Enhance the Safety Culture of an Academic Chemistry Research Laboratory by Addressing Behavioral Factors

• Published in: Journal of chemical education Vol. 93; no. 2; pp. 217 - 222
• Main Authors: Staehle, Ira O, Chung, Tim S, Stopin, Antoine, Vadehra, Geeta S, Hsieh, Scott I, Gibson, James H, Garcia-Garibay, Miguel A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Easton American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc 09.02.2016; American Chemical Society
• Subjects: Best practice; Best Practices; Chemical reactions; Cultural factors; Cultural groups; Culture; Domains; Emergency response; Environmental impact; Experimental research; Hazards; Inspection; Laboratories; Laboratory Safety; Organic chemistry; Researchers; Safety; Safety management; Safety regulations; Science education; Hazards; Research; Safety; Laboratory Management; Graduate Education; Organic Chemistry
• ISSN: 0021-9584; 1938-1328
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00299

Safety culture is often divided into three domains, which include personal, environmental, and behavioral factors. In order to improve the behavioral components of the safety culture in the research group of the authors (the Garcia-Garibay group, or GG research group), we implemented three safety practices intended to sensitize group members on the importance of best practices that depend on simple actions taken by individual researchers. These best practices include (1) a rotating twice-daily safety inspection to enhance an appreciation for the value of safety regulations that may be considered less significant and are frequently overlooked, (2) frequent safety discussions followed by quizzes to give researchers an opportunity to assess their safety knowledge on a range of topics, and (3) the use of an overnight reaction form that is posted on lab entryways as a safety communication best practice to ensure that other researchers in the laboratory and emergency responders are aware of the potential hazards associated with ongoing chemical reactions that do not require continual monitoring. To determine the impact of these measures we analyzed the UCLA Office of Environment, Health and Safety (EH&S) laboratory safety inspection records from the GG research group and compared the findings with those of all other experimental research groups in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCLA from the period of 2011 to 2013. We propose that in the absence of any other (either punitive or rewarding) actions, an accelerated improvement in the reduction of the number of inspection findings in the GG research group can be associated with behavioral components of a safety culture addressed by those measures.