From: Moorefield, MubetcelRE: [DCHAS-L] 6 re: SAFETY I am curious to know how many of the members of this list have "STOP" training in place at their institutions. I wouldn't mind receiving your private answers and compiling them for the list. Mubetcel Moorefield From: Robin M. Izzo RE: [DCHAS-L] 6 re: SAFETY Roger, I agree that the rate of positive cultural change in universities is slow. When he was president of Princeton University, former President Woodrow Wilson said, "effecting change at a university is like trying to move a graveyard." And that was 100 years ago. I've been working at universities for more than 20 years. Things have definitely improved, but it's not an easy task. You are right that the culture change needs to come from the top, but that's never going to be enough. What it comes down to is this... Supervisors make the difference. It doesn't matter how many EHS staff you have, they can't be in the labs, especially at a large institution with hundreds or even thousands of labs, all the time. In industry, there are supervisors in the lab, supervisors supervising those supervisors, etc. Employees are professional adults with a vested interest in keeping their jobs. There is incentive to follow the rules. You have a mix of ages, of experience. Contrast this with a university. The supervisor in the lab is a faculty member. The faculty member has a teaching load, is writing, is mentoring students and is running the lab. In most cases, this person has never worked outside academia and doesn't know any other way. The supervisor of the faculty member is the chair of the department, who may or may not be a lab researcher and is generally not micromanaging the labs. The "employees" of the lab are students - graduate and undergraduate. There are very few, if any, professional staff in the lab. They are looking to get good grades and complete research projects. The grad students often teach, as well. The undergrads are pulling a full courseload. You can go to any science or arts building any time of the night or day and find students conducting research, trying to meet a deadline, trying to use the equipment that they are forced to share with others. My point is that the students don't act or see themselves in the same way the employee does. There is less incentive to always follow the rules. They see themselves as indestructable. It's a group of young people working together, rarely with a mix of ages and the experience that comes with it. The faculty don't see themselves as supervisors in the same way that an industry supervisor does. It varies, but some spend very little time in the lab. They are at an academic institution, where they question everything and feel comfortable doing their own risk assessment. They follow safety rules that they HAVE to follow. They can't get radioactive materials unless they follow certain very specific rules. They can't get biological materials unless they follow certain very specific rules. It doesn't matter what they think of the rules, they just follow them because they must. They will do the least that they have to do. But for chemicals, it's different. For chemicals, shops and other potential hazards in the lab, the training they receive relies on risk assessment, rather than hard and fast rules. And when the faculty is not there, which can be often, students will do what feels, seems right. A student who has just completed five hours of classes, three hours of homework and has a lab project due tomorrow is going to take shortcuts. And if there is nobody watching them and forcing them to follow the rules, they are making themselves vulnerable. My point is that it's not as easy as having a president and deans interested in safety. Our president is a molecular biologist who ran a lab here at Princeton for many years before becoming president. She sets the tone and is very, very supportive of EHS. The Dean for Research is just as supportive, as are chairs and other deans. It's still not enough. Until faculty start running their labs in a professional manner, change will be slow. I am painting faculty with a broad brush. There are some fabulous ones out there, promoting safety. The chair of our chemistry department is one of them. He wanted to be sure that every researcher wears a lab coat, so purchased flame-resistant lab coats for everyone, embroidered their names on them, hired a cleaning service for them, made it as simple as possible. But without him going into labs and calling out those not wearing them, they will just be coats on chairs. And that is only one small piece. We will get there. It's going to take a lot of work and many of us are trying. I meet with every new faculty member before they open their lab, focusing them on supervision, talking about the culture we expect to see. I see some real progress, but it's going to take time to move this graveyard. Robin Izzo Associate Director, EHS Princeton University
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