Your department should have a safety committee. Academic institutions and companies should all have safety committees. The committees should consist of employees, supervisors, faculty, staff, administration, and students.

This is the cornerstone of a good safety program. It’s a statement endorsed and supported by the administration that speaks to the fundamental responsibilities for health and safety in the academic institution or company.

For too many years at academic institutions and some companies, health, safety and the environment have been something extra. It’s time that it becomes part of the process.

One school accumulated 20 five-pound bottles of mercury. Each year they ordered from the same list that they had used the year before! Not a good idea. You need to know what you have, where it’s located, and who’s responsible for it.

Some chemicals have a short life expectancy. Others will remain good for a long time. Solvents that form peroxides are one example of substances requiring periodic testing. Ethers, vinyl compounds, alcohols, ketones, and aldehydes are some of the

Some service laboratories operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. These include chemical plant laboratories, laboratories in other types of production plants, some hospital laboratories, and forensic laboratories.

Employers are responsible for making sure personal protective equipment (PPE) is available and that employees are using it.

Recently we had the unpleasant experience of investigating a gruesome and almost deadly accident. A maintenance worker was removing a cable tie from a package on the loading dock when his pocketknife slipped and punctured his thigh, slicing his femoral artery.

The only good way to prepare for an emergency situation is to think through how you should respond and then practice doing it correctly.