Creating Safety Cultures in Academic Institutions

Elements of Strong Safety Cultures

• 1: Leadership and management—Responsibilities and accountability for safety must be clearly defined from the highest levels of the administration, down through schools and departments, to individual faculty and staff. Leading by example is a requirement of all members of an institution, especially faculty.
• 2: Teaching laboratory and chemical safety—Every chemist needs an in-depth knowledge of laboratory and chemical safety. He or she should acquire this safety knowledge and education continually through years of educational process. The report suggests about 80 safety topics that should be taught, and it emphasizes teaching “critical thinking” skills in laboratory and chemical safety.
• 3: Strong safety attitudes, awareness, and ethics—Strong positive attitudes about safety require long-term efforts through continuous emphasis on safety. Teaching (and learning) safety is an ethical responsibility. The Safety Ethic reflects the proper attitude of valuing safety.
• 4: Learning from laboratory incidents—Studies of incidents capture interest and teach lessons about safety. Institutions should implement a system of reporting and investigating incidents.
• 5: Establishing collaborative relationships—Safety culture requires close, trusting collaborations among all members of the academic community—including faculty members; administrative staff; students; postdoctoral scholars; and Environmental, Health, and Safety staff—as well as public emergency responders.
• 6: Promoting and communicating safety—Demonstrating safety practices through personal example and recognizing positive safety behaviors are important ways to promote safety. Safety should be reinforced through continuous and diverse efforts.
• 7: Strong safety programs require funding—All strong safety programs require investment of substantial effort with adequate and continuous funding by institutional administrations. Identifying responsibilities for safety is a critical step in determining budgets.

Incorporating the Safety Culture into Your Academic Community

All of the elements listed above are essential and necessary in building strong safety cultures, but perhaps the most important concepts are leadership and safety education. As future faculty and staff, graduate students and postdocs should prepare to accept responsibility for safety and lead by example. This includes ensuring that undergraduates’, graduates’, and postdoctoral scholars’ curricula include comprehensive laboratory and chemical safety education. Those teaching and conducting research in laboratories should also receive an education in laboratory and chemical safety—and this includes the many in graduate programs who oversee and teach in undergraduate laboratories.

Additionally, the Creating Safety Cultures report lists 17 recommendations that serve as guidelines for building strong safety cultures. These recommendations were derived from the essential elements that are listed above. As academic institutions implement these measures, strong safety cultures should evolve that ensure safety is an integral part of all teaching and research programs.