Karl Roberts <kr1 at PGSTUMAIL.PG.CC.MD.US> wrote:
> 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.
Before coming to graduate school I worked as a research technician for
8 years. For the last three I managed a lab and, in the course of this,
trained a number of undergraduates to do both research and basic lab
things (pouring plates, making media, making fly food, etc). The first
thing I told (and tell since I have a couple of undergrads helping me now)
is that my first concern for them is their safety. I try to teach them
good lab safety through giving them knowledge about what they are working
with and impressing upon them that they should make certain practices
second nature: i.e., gloves, safety glasses, no mouth pipetting, focus,
knowing where they are in a procedure, and most importantly respect for
the materials they are handling.
A couple of years ago an incident occurred - it's stuck in my head as a
good example of this. There was a new graduate student in the lab and
she was unaware of a few of our house rules. One of them was that undergrads
do not make up polyacrylamide. My boss and I felt it was too dangerous a
task for someone with little experience. I was working at my bench and
happened to turn around since I saw one of my undergrads was working in
the hood. She had on a face mask and gloves and a coat - I also saw that
she was about to open a bottle of acrylamide. I told her to stop. She
put the bottle down and stepped back away from the hood - no arguements or
asking why. She trusted that I told her to stop for a good reason. The
grad student who had told her to make up the solution started demanding
why I had told her to stop. I explained to the grad student the lab rule
and told her to make it up herself. When it came to my undergrads I had
one golden rule - there's me, there's my boss and then there's God.
I also, at one time in my tech career, set up and ran a small lab (just me
in it). I had one rule which I impressed on EVERYONE who came in (and this
included the chair of the department): keep hands in pockets and ASK before
touching ANYTHING. I worked with non-tested human blood in that lab and
I didn't want anyone having an accident if I could help it.
I guess what all this means is that I think lab safety is very important
BUT I think it's best maintained by teaching respect for the materials -
not by lining the lab in foam rubber. My students knew to ask me or someone
else if they had a question about a chemical or an instrument. They knew
that I was looking out for their safety and they learned how to keep
themselves safe in the lab by using their brain and common sense.
joan
--
Joan Shields jshields at uci.eduhttp://www.ags.uci.edu/~jshields
University of California - Irvine
School of Social Ecology Department of Environmental Analysis and Design
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