Safety Resources for Students

Are you a student looking to dive into chemical practise or expand your lab knowledge? This is a great place to get started. The following resources will help you brush your basics while guiding you to get comfortable and SAFE in a lab!

Guide

LSTs are student-led groups that play a pivotal role in promoting a strong safety culture in academic labs.

Booklet

The Eight Edition of Safety in Academic Chemistry Laboratories is also available in Arabic.

Infographic

A poster explaining how to organize steps when planning a chemistry demo.

Free Online Course: Foundations of Chemical Safety & Risk Management

This self-guided, online course offers education on chemical safety concepts for undergraduates who have completed two semesters of general chemistry and one semester of organic chemistry, including labs. Students will learn to:

  • Describe the components and tools of a strong safety culture
  • Apply the principles of RAMP to laboratory operations
  • Identify methods to minimize hazards and risks in the laboratory, and
  • Outline processes needed to plan for emergencies.

Login with Your ACS ID to Take the Course  Learn More

For any comments or questions related to the course please contact us at safety@acs.org

free-online-course

International Language Resources for Students


ACS Seguridad Para Las Comunidades Hispanas

Explore Spanish language resources for academic chemistry labs, including safety videos with Spanish captioning.

Explore Now


Booklet

Safety in Academic Chemistry Laboratories, Arabic Translation

The Eight Edition of Safety in Academic Chemistry Laboratories is also available in Arabic.

Video

Why Should We Do Laboratory Risk Assessments?

This video outlines how lab Risk Assessments are done and reasons they are important.

Video

Working in the lab alone?

Explore the many safety requirements and scenarios you may encounter when working in a chemistry lab by yourself.

Safety Resources for Faculty and Administrators

Booklet

Guidelines for Chemical Laboratory Safety in Academic Institutions

These guidelines are intended to assist faculty and staff as they develop, enhance and assess the safety education of their students. The goal of these guidelines is to enable students to develop an understanding of the principles of chemical safety and apply them when working in a lab.

Booklet

Creating Safety Cultures in Academic Institutions

ACS guide offering suggestions, and recommendations that can help strengthen the safety culture in two- and four-year undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral programs. The guide focuses the best elements and best practices of a good safety culture.

Resources from ACS Partners

Guide

Guide to Implementing a Safety Culture

Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) invited ACS to participate in creating the roadmap for a university-wide effort to strengthen a culture of research safety. This guide has action steps, resources and recommendations to help navigate the challenge of promoting safety culture in institutions.

Report

Safe Science: Promoting a Culture of Safety in Academic Research

The report examines the culture of safety in research institutions and makes recommendations for university leadership, laboratory researchers, environmental health and safety professionals to support safety as a core value of their institutions.

Resources for Academic Researchers


Identifying and Evaluating Hazards in Research Laboratories

This guide was developed by the Hazard Identification and Evaluation Task Force of the American Chemical Society’s Committee on Chemical Safety (CCS) and provides techniques to ensure hazard information is gathered and analyzed:

  • To aid researchers in recognizing the value of input from others with varying experiences;
  • To provide techniques that can be used for a variety of different types of activities (routine protocols, modifications to current research, or entirely new activities); and
  • To consider the variable nature of research tasks by providing tools that help researchers recognize and respond to change—both large and small.

This guide is applicable for researchers of all levels—undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, instructors, principal investigators (PIs), technicians, or department chairs—who have varied approaches to learning and experimental design and who may require different kinds of assessment tools.

Download the Guide  Explore the Guide Online


Get involved with Chemical Safety Initiatives

Engage with other members of the chemical safety community. Membership provides networking opportunities, access to career advancement tools, meeting discounts, and more.

Join the Division   Become an ACS Member

Connect with Us

Email the Safety team at safety@acs.org

We can't find products matching the selection.