An Assessment of Laboratory Safety Training in Undergraduate Education

A survey was developed and implemented to determine how pervasively safety principles and cultural expectations are included in the chemistry curriculum at the undergraduate level. The survey was completed by first-year doctoral candidates in the chemical/pharmaceutical sciences. A majority of the respondents were trained in the use of Safety Data Sheets (SDSs) and PubChem. Additionally, a majority (61%) reported frequent safety discussions prior to performing experiments in their laboratory courses. In contrast, similar discussions occurred infrequently in their research laboratories (16%). Approximately 20% of the surveyed students reported experiencing a laboratory injury, and significantly larger percentages observed near misses in their teaching and research laboratories. However, the survey did not find any correlation between the frequency of safety discussions, chemical resource training, or the delivery mode of training with the likelihood of incidents. The survey did find that a specific training method explicitly intended to preclude mishaps, namely, the RAMP risk management system, is not well integrated into the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. Finally, the survey contained a series of potentially dangerous laboratory scenarios in order to determine whether the tendency to engage in risky laboratory behavior correlates with specific demographics and/or prior experiences. The data suggest that prior experience with an injury or observation of a near miss encourages the choice of safer options when confronted with a hazardous situation.