These reports from the latest edition of the ACS Councilor News can be found at
https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/about/governance/councilors/councilor-bulletin.html
Lab Safety
Dr. Diane Grob Schmidt, Immediate Past-President
At its December board meeting, the ACS Board of Directors took action on several items relating to safety. The Board approved a 2017 strategic plan that now includes safety as part of the core values for the Society. In addition, the Board devoted the largest time slot on its agenda to the strategies encompassing safety.
In a facilitated discussion, the Board discussed the ramifications of safety as a core value and how best to renew and strengthen our focus on this topic, extending to the Society as a whole. Although there is still a great deal to be worked out, it is very clear the ACS Board looks forward to working with ACS entities to further address the potential and challenges of elevating this critical topic to an enhanced level of importance. The ACS Strategic Plan for 2017 and Beyond will be posted at http://strategy.acs.org/
ACS journals have taken action regarding lab safety. Please see the December 5, 2016 issue of Chemical & Engineering News article entitled "ACS Journals Enact Across-the-board Safety Policy."
http://cen.acs.org/ articles/94/i48/ACS-journals- enact-new-safety.html
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The Committee on Chemical Safety (CCS) is pleased to release two documents that will be useful in building or strengthening chemical laboratory safety efforts.
=E2=80=A2 Guidelines for Chemical Laboratory Safety in Academic Institutions
=E2=80=A2 Guidelines from Chemical Laboratory Safety in Secondary Schools
To produce this guidance, the CCS formed and charged the Task Force for Safety Education Guidelines (TFSEG) to develop guidelines for laboratory safety education for sec- ondary, undergraduate, and graduate education. The TFSEG team consisted of representatives from the following ACS committees, divisions, and boards: CCS, CHAS, CPT, SOCED, CHED, Ethics, CA, Graduate Education Advisory Board, Two-Year College Advisory Board, along with representation from the AACT and university and high school faculty.
The Safety Education Guidelines are organized much differently from most current chemical safety instructional materials. Rather than being organized around specific topics, e.g., flammables, corrosives, etc., they are organized around the concept of R.A.M.P. - an acronym for the Four Principles of Safety: Recognize the hazard, Assess the risk of the hazard, Minimize the risk of the hazard, and Prepare for emergencies.
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Another item just released by the CCS is the Hazard Assessment in Research Laboratories website, an extension of the document "Identifying and Evaluating Hazards in Research Laboratories". This website will continue to help build critical thinking and problem-solving skills and can be used in any research laboratory.
All three new resources are available at no cost from the ACS Committee on Chemical Safety. They may be accessed at the following links: Guidelines documents: http://www.acs.org/safety
Job Hazard Assessment Tool can be found at: http://www.acs.org/hazardassessment
To request hard copies of the Guidelines, please send a message to safety**At_Symbol_Here**acs.org The Job Hazard Assessment Tool is only available as a download.
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This e-mail is from DCHAS-L, the e-mail list of the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety.
For more information about the list, contact the Divisional secretary at secretary**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
