Dear Peter,
Very interesting perspective. You do have some good points to
make, but the issue is not perception with regards to laboratory safety.
I do agree, conditions in the past were much more hazardous than they are
today, but it is our responsibility as instructors to maintain a safe
working environment and make our students aware of safety considerations
both for themselves and their fellows. I do not advocate forcing
unnecessary precaution, but I do stress that an awareness of potential
hazards coupled with good, sound preventive antiseptic and aseptic
technique is important, to health and well-being. Thanks for your
thoughts.
Karl J. Roberts, Ph.D.
PGCC
Maryland, USA
On Wed, 15 Oct 1997, K N and P J Harris wrote:
> Lab Safety,
>> I agree that modern pipetting devices with sterile disposable tips have
> made many of these operations very much more safe and have rendered
> mouth pipetting a thing of the past. There was however a nasty
> intermediate period when dreadful gadgets were "stuck" on the end of
> glass pipettes in the interests of "perceived safety" and did just the
> reverse. Our laboratory accident book rapidly filled with incidents of
> glass pipettes breaking and causing nasty wounds when students attempted
> to apply the "aid". There were no similar quantities of mouth
> pipetting accidents. They were unreliable and caused lots of spillage
> due to leaking.
>> There is however a fallacy in the assumption that all practical science
> can in some way be rendered totally risk free. Many student scientists
> are being trained for research. By definition, research is the
> examination of the unknown. The unknown is risky.
>> What is being lost in all the dumbing-down of current science teaching
> is respect for the innate properties of materials, some of them
> dangerous, but which we have struggled for years to handle.
>> If the safety requirements now being expected of University Science
> teaching were applied to the construction industry, no new buildings
> would ever be erected. If applied to the road we would all drive at 2mph
> in vehicles surrounded by layers of foam rubber and only during daylight
> hours.
>> Peter Harris,
> Reading University,
> UK.
>> I'm all for safety, but safety through knowledge not diktat.
>>
