We also have students sign a safety agreement.  We are currently keeping 5 years hard copy and scanning the older ones. 

On another note that folks might want to think about.  This week we had a student touch her face while wearing gloves that evidently had some 6M HCl on them.  This was in one of our night labs.  We have only been offering night labs for 2 semesters and so still working out the kinks.  Turns out our health services closes at 6 and students are transported to the ER at the local hospital.  This was a minor event, and would not have required an ER visit if our infirmary had been open. 

While all of our students are required to have insurance, some may not fully cover ER visits.  We are now working on language in materials to make sure that students (and parents) understand that payments for trips to the ER will be the responsibility of the family or student.

We also questioned who the ER personnel would contact should additional information be needed about the exposure.  The student might not know the chemical name and there might not be time to get the SDS to the student to carry with them.  We are working on getting that protocol in place to. 

Sammye

Hi Dave,

Our students sign a safety agreement at the beginning of each semester.   It includes rules of conduct and a statement about exposure during pregnancy similar to the statement provided by Sammye:

Pregnant and Immunocompromised Individuals

If you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant (or become a father), we suggest that you consider taking the class at another time.  Although the lab is planned to be as safe as we can make it, there will undoubtedly be some inadvertent exposure to chemicals.  If you find yourself in this situation, please take the time to gather enough information to make an informed decision regarding your participation in laboratory. Pregnant lab students who do not wish to risk any possibility of exposure to chemicals in the lab are encouraged to consider withdrawing or taking an incomplete, because the only way to avoid all laboratory chemical exposure is to not be in the lab.

In the past, laboratory instructors have provided pregnant students with alternative activities.  The alternatives have sometimes been chemical substitutions and sometimes activities outside the lab.  

Ann

On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 12:19 AM, Samuella Sigmann <sigmannsb**At_Symbol_Here**appstate.edu> wrote:

Hi Dave - Here is our pregnancy statement.  Approved by our university attorney 5+ years ago.  We have this in all our manuals and lab syllabi.  According to the attorney, the rights of the mother to participate in lab take precedence.  In other words, we cannot tell them to stay out for the baby's safety.  We do just what you said - send them to their doctor with the SDSs.  Some opt to drop lab.  For those who don't, we have dry labs established for the experiments where there might really be an elevated risk - FPD with p-xylene, MW by Vapor - to name a few.

Allergies we handle on a case by case basis, but we did just come up with a statement this semester.  

"Be aware that some individuals might be sensitive or allergic to chemicals used in lab.  If you have a known allergy and would like to know if you should take precautions for this, please speak with your instructor at a convenient time." 

We then mention some of the common things we have seen - nickel, sulfur, salicylic acid.
Sammye

Department of Chemistry Pregnancy Policy

Pregnancy introduces a special set of variables into the consideration of hazards in laboratory. While the exposure levels to chemicals commonly encountered in a university laboratory setting pose no or low risk to an adult, they can pose a significantly higher level of hazard to the unborn fetus. Many of these hazards are not well studied, and it is not known what exposure level is safe for an unborn child. It is therefore prudent for pregnant women to limit the unnecessary exposure of a fetus to any chemicals. This is especially true if the chemicals are mutagenic (causes damage to chromosomes) or teratogenic (causes birth defects and/or fetal death).
 
If you have recently become pregnant or you are anticipating becoming pregnant while you are taking laboratory courses, you should discuss the possible ramifications that working in a chemistry laboratory might have on the fetus with your instructor and your physician. Your instructor can inform you of the specific chemicals that you will be using that are known or suspected to be reproductive toxins and your discussions will be held in strict confidence.

On 2/26/2014 9:19 PM, David C. Finster wrote:

CHAS folks,

 

I recently got an email from a colleague asking:

 

"Our department is looking for model policies for students with medical conditions which might limit their participation in the laboratory (such as asthma, pregnancy, allergies, etc.). We're getting a suggestion from "on high" to have a caveat emptor policy where we just refer students to the SDS=E2=80™s and tell them that they have to make their own decisions in consultation with their physician.

 

Do you know of any models we might look at for review, consideration, and/or adoption?"

 

Suggestions?

 

Dave

 

David C. Finster
Professor, Department of Chemistry
University Chemical Hygiene Officer
Wittenberg University
937-327-6441
http://userpages.wittenberg.edu/dfinster/index.html

 

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Ann Klotz
School of Science
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