What Can You Do to Improve the Safety Culture of Your Lab?

Would you like to begin incorporating safety into everyday activities of your research?  Do you want to reduce the probability of accidents or injuries in your lab?  If your answer is “yes” to these questions, then consider including “lab safety moments” in every lab meeting. 

At the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (UMTC), the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Chemical Engineering, and Materials Science (CEMS) do not begin a lab meeting without a “safety moment.”   A “safety moment” is a 1 to 2 minute talk about a lab safety topic used to kick-off the lab meeting.  The following list includes a sample of topics

° Safety Issues in the Media

° Emergency Procedures

° Engineering Controls

° Classes of Personal Protective Equipment

° Chemicals and Their Hazards

° Technique and Procedure Safety (i.e. Working in an Inert Atmosphere, Using an Oil Bath, Flash Chromatography hazards)

For this university, the leaders of cultural change were current lab members that worked in collaboration with research staff and university safety.  As current lab members, these individuals were able to make safety central to the daily activities in the lab.   They helped to ensure personnel knew the expectations for conducting experiments safely and encouraged the culture of safety within their lab.  Over time, the cultural change within the lab helped shift the culture of the department.  As a result, awareness of the need for personal protective equipment increased along with use of required protective gear.

What can you do to improve the safety culture of your lab?

•  Maintain a set of lab specific standard operating procedures or guidelines.
• Address instances when lab members consistently depart from safety requirements.
• Encourage staff members to share general safety concerns.
• Increase safety awareness by benchmarking with other labs or obtaining advice from members of the campus’ safety community.
• Share and discuss safety challenges or concerns with other research departments.

Article Credits:

Safety Moments—http://www.jst.umn.edu/moments.html

Science Magazine: http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2014_03_05/caredit.a1400060