Lecture 04

Occupational Health & Safety

By
Engr. Muhammad Waseem

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 Elements of Safety Culture in Academic
Institution
1. Leadership and Management of Safety in the Academic
institution:
➢ In the academic arena the 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 of authority are not always observed or enforced,
especially due to the responsibility for safety being delegated to
individual departments.
➢ As a result the authority often rests with the department chairs; the
senior, tenured faculty, and they may not always accept responsibility
for safety. nevertheless safety is an educational responsibility

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 Elements of Safety Culture in Academic
Institution
2. Teaching basic laboratory and Chemical Safety through
Continuous learning:

➢ Within a strong safety culture, safety knowledge should build year

after year throughout the undergraduate curriculum and continue
into graduate studies.

➢ Designated staff and faculty, senior undergraduate students,

graduate teaching assistants, and postdoctoral scholars who teach
laboratory sessions should have a thorough understanding of
laboratory safety and know what to teach and how to teach it.
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 Elements of Safety Culture in Academic
Institution
The laboratory is a unique environment for Hazard Analysis/ Risk
management. For this a technique known as RAMP technique can be
effective (FOUR Principles of Safety)

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 RAMP
➢ RAMP is a concept for scientific safety, developed by Robert H.
Hill and David C. Finster in their textbook Laboratory Safety for
Chemistry Students.

➢ The American Chemical Society (ACS) has come up with the

acronym RAMP to help keep a safe laboratory environment for
students and educators..

➢ All laboratory workers, including students taking laboratory

courses, should strive to follow these four key safety principles
and the associated Lab Safety Learning Objectives.
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 RAMP
➢ Recognize hazards,

➢ Assess risks,

➢ Minimize risks, and

➢ Prepare for emergencies

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 RAMP
➢ Recognize hazards:
➢ Use labels on bottles and containers to identify the most important hazards of
the contents. Use Safety Data Sheets (SDSs) to identify Globally Harmonized
System (GHS) hazards of the chemicals you will be using. These include
physical, health, and environmental hazards. The main hazard categories are
flammables, explosives, corrosives, oxidizers, irritants, and toxicants.
➢ Understand the nature of the hazard (its chemistry and/or
toxicological/biological effects).
➢ Identify the most important physical hazards from equipment, conditions, and
procedures. These include electrical and mechanical hazards and high or low
temperature or pressure.

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 RAMP
➢ Assess Risk from Hazards:

➢ Risk - the probability of harm or damage from a hazards.

➢ Assess the risks presented by the most important hazards.

➢ Use SDSs and the GHS Hazard Categories and Statements to

determine the relative risk of the hazards.

➢ Check to be sure all glassware and equipment are in good shape

and working condition.

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 RAMP
➢ Minimize Risk of the Hazards
➢ Identify methods and safe practices to minimize the risks from
exposures to chemicals and from physical hazards.
➢ Understand the nature and limitations of personal protective equipment,
chemical hoods, and other safety equipment.
➢ Locate online and printed materials to identify safe practices and
consult with more experienced chemists.
➢ Wear personal protective equipment such as splash goggles, lab coats or
aprons, and appropriate gloves. The dress code in a lab should be such
that there should be no exposed skin below chest level.
➢ Use appropriate waste containers when discarding chemicals.
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 RAMP
➢ Prepare for Emergencies

➢ Know and practice the procedures for handling common

emergencies such as spills, cuts, burns, exposures, and fires.

➢ Discuss emergency procedures with students, both in a general

way and with regard to each experiment.

➢ Ensure that all safety equipment, such as eyewash, fire

extinguisher, first aid kit, and safety shower, is present and in
working order.

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Elements of Safety Culture in Academic
Institution

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 Elements of Safety Culture in Academic
Institution
3. Safety attitudes, Safety awareness, Safety ethics:
➢ Solid safety awareness and attitudes are important and building safety awareness requires a
long-term effort (safety is highlighted repeatedly). Teaching safety continuously over the
entire undergraduate experience can build positive attitudes and strong safety ethics among
students.
➢ Faculty and staff members have an ethical obligation to teach students and new employee
about the need for a positive, proactive attitude about safety while conducting
experiments in labs etc. Following safety policies and procedures in a lab is just as important
as the information the students receive in a presentation or the knowledge a student gains
from an experiment.
➢ Lab staff needs to know and follow the appropriate safety practices in the laboratory. The
proper attitude for safety is reflected in the “Safety Ethic”—value
safety, work safely, prevent at-risk behavior, promote safety, and accept responsibility for
safety

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 Elements of Safety Culture in Academic
Institution
4. Learning from incidents
Most of what is known about safety has been learned from mistakes or
incidents. Important elements of a strong safety culture include
establishing a system for reporting and investigating incidents,
identifying direct and root causes, and implementing corrective actions.
The components of an incident investigation system are:
(a) An incident reporting system This should include students in addition
to a university employee. Incidents should be reported within 24–48
hours, so that facts are easily remembered. Close calls and non-
reportable incidents should also be included in an incident reporting
system.

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 Elements of Safety Culture in Academic
Institution
(a) An incident investigation system that collects reports of incidents, conducts
investigations of incidents, and reports lessons learned to faculty, staff, and
students. the extent of an investigation is determined by the seriousness of the
incident, but all incidents should be investigated as soon as possible and serious
incident scenes (injuries or serious damage) should be preserved until released by
investigators. this system includes an investigation reporting system, so lessons
learned may be shared and appropriate actions can be taken to prevent future
incidents.
(b) An incident database that contains incident and investigation reports, including
close calls and non-reportable incidents. this database is used to look for tracking,
trends analysis, and systemic problems, and to track the implementation of
corrective actions. this information should be used to teach lessons through
proactive communications to others to prevent or minimize future incidents

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 Elements of Safety Culture in Academic
Institution
5. Collaborative interactions that help build Strong Safety Cultures:

The Safety committees in an academic institution need to be active and

productive and publish informative documents regularly.

A critical part of every safety program is to establish collaborative and

trusting interactions among members of the institution, especially among
faculty, staff, and environmental health and safety professionals.

The university or college should establish a close working relationship

with safety professionals, local emergency responders, especially fire
departments and their hazard materials (Hazmat) teams

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 Elements of Safety Culture in Academic
Institution
6. Promoting and Communicating Safety: probably the best way to
promote safety is through personal example. This is especially important
for faculty and staff since students will follow their example. One way to
promote a safety program might be a safety newsletter or weekly bulletin
that is distributed via social networks and campus-wide e-mails.
Departments may consider having open seminars to discuss topical safety
issues or incidents.

7. Encouraging institutional Support of Safety by funding Safety

programs and Supplies: New and innovative approaches for building a
strong safety culture may require funding
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 Recommendations for Creating Safety
Cultures in academic institutions
➢ Establish the lines of authority for safety; develop a safety policy that
includes laboratory safety, and includes safety responsibilities in the job
descriptions and performance plans of all employees. (leadership and
management)

➢ Encourage every leader to become a proponent of safety and safety

education, and to demonstrate this care for safety in their actions with
other staff members and students. (leadership and management)

➢ Establish a strong, effective safety management system and safety

program for the institution, including laboratory safety. (leadership and
management)
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 Recommendations for Creating Safety
Cultures in academic institutions
➢ Ensure graduating and undergraduate students have strong skills in
laboratory safety and strong safety ethics by teaching safety lessons in
each laboratory session, and by evaluating and testing these skills
throughout the educational process (continuous learning in labs).

➢ Ensure managing or overseeing students in laboratory courses and

sessions have successfully completed a course in lab safety. (continuous
learning in labs).

➢ Implement hazards analysis procedures in all new lab work, especially

laboratory research. (continuous learning in labs).

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 Recommendations for Creating Safety
Cultures in academic institutions
➢ Build awareness and caring for safety by emphasizing safety throughout the
lab curricula.
➢ Include safety education and training (for undergraduate students, graduate
students, and postdoctoral scholars participating in proposed research) in
research grant proposals, and oversight of research for safety.
➢ Adopt a personal philosophy: the “Safety ethic”—value safety, work safely,
prevent at-risk behavior, promote safety, and accept responsibility for safety
➢ Establish and maintain an incident reporting System, an incident investigation
System, and an incident Database that should include not only employees, but
also—graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and other non-employees. All
faculty, staff, and graduate and undergraduate students involved in teaching,

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 Recommendations for Creating Safety
Cultures in academic institutions
➢ Establish an internal review process of incidents and corrective actions with the
Departmental Safety Committee (faculty, staff, students, graduate students, and
postdoctoral scholars), and provide periodic safety seminars on lessons learned from
incidents.

➢ Publish or share the stories of incidents and the lessons learned (case studies) to
your institution’s Web site, a public Web site, or an appropriate journal where
students and colleagues from other institutions may also use these as case studies for
learning more about safety.

➢ Establish a series of safety councils and safety committees from the highest level of
management to the departmental level or lower. each of these committees reports, in
turn, to a committee that is higher in the hierarchy of the institution.

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 Recommendations for Creating Safety
Cultures in academic institutions
➢ Establish a close working relationship with local emergency
responders, so they are prepared to respond to emergencies in
laboratories.
➢ Establish a system to promote safety in an institution or department that
encompasses electronic communications; printed materials; special
seminars or events discussing or promoting safety; a recognition system
for good safety performance; and a process to solicit, review, and act on
suggestions for improving safety and identifying safety issues.
➢ Identify the ongoing need to support a strong safety culture and work
with administrators and department chairs to establish a baseline budget
to support safety activities on an annual basis.

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