Learning Experience Reports featured in Journal of Chemical Education
The ongoing work of the Joint Safety Team to improve the culture of safety in the departments of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering & Materials Science is featured in an article published in the Journal of Chemical Education, Learning Experience Reports Improve Academic Research Safety.
The Joint Safety Team began from a partnership focused on safety among the Dow Chemical Company and the two departments in 2012. Since then it has created and successfully implemented initiatives to improve the culture of safety focused on four main areas—compliance, awareness, resources, and education. One of those is Learning Experience Reports (LER) that encourage open discussion of lab incidents and near misses. LERs are short, anonymous, voluntary submissions by researchers who were either directly involved with or witnessed a safety related incident, near miss, or observation of unsafe practices.
According to the abstract for the article, the top three frequently occurring hazards were spill, fire, and equipment failures. "LERs encourage open discussions of lab incidents and near misses through honest, compelling stories among academic researchers and educate researchers to follow better lab practices. For university administrators, LERs complement existing hazard assessment and incident reporting methods and allow a better understanding of the current research safety landscape among the student body. For researchers, the LER system allows them to develop safety awareness at an early stage and benefit their future careers."
The article outlines the logistics for implementing an effective LER system and includes testimonials from professors Philippe Buhlmann, Raul Caretta, Christopher Douglas, and Christopher Ellison. The article was written by Yangming Kou and Xiayu Peng from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Claire Dingwell and Spencer Reisbick from the Department of Chemistry, Professor Ian Tonks from the Department of Chemistry, and Anna Sitek from the Department of Environmental Health and Safety.