Unlike many of your students, my sophomore-level General Chemistry students don't handle highly toxic substances. It's their use of concentrated acids and bases (in very small quantities)that makes me very vigilant during labs. What makes me most worried, however, is what in my opinion is a greater hazard in the lab than typical toxics, corrosives and irritants that cannot be addressed with SDSs. That hazard is that too many students don't take the time to read and to read well. I make this statement based on their failure to follow oral and written directions-even simple ones-about performing steps in the experiment.These are not stupid or non-English comprehending people as quite a few will ultimately be accepted to CalState and UC schools. I don=E2=80™t question the importance and utility of SDSs. What I question is that students will read them or modified forms of them properly without guidance and supervision. This applies also to graduate students and research assistants. It is my experience in both academia and industry that SDSs, as signs and placards, become invisible like wall paper to both the trained and the novice. I believe that whatever the safety instructional format, it is ultimately up to the instructor, TA, or PI to monitor students' compliance with safety rules and procedures.
Mel Kantz
Melvin R. Kantz, Ph.D., Lecturer
El Camino College
Natural Science Div., Chemistry Dept.
Torrance, CA
Preferred email: drmelk**At_Symbol_Here**verizon.net
Web: http://www.scitech-expert..com/dr-mel-kantz-in-class.html
On Apr 12, 2018, at 7:52 AM, Stuart, Ralph <
Ralph.Stuart**At_Symbol_Here**KEENE.EDU> wrote:
