We have been providing both gloves and safety goggles to our students.
Latex or nitrile gloves are placed in the laboratory for those student
s who choose to use them. Less than 50% choose to do so.
Although students are supposedly required to review each experiment in
advance and to look up information on the hazards and handling of each che
mical they will use in the experiment, there is not uniform adherence to th
is, nor do all students do a satisfactory
job. Therefore, at the beginning of each experiment, I review all th
e potentially hazardous chemicals that will be used during the experiment a
long with some reminders for the proper handling of those chemicals, what t
o do in the event of skin contact, and
proper disposal. If I believe that gloves are necessary for any proce
dure, I will require them, otherwise, it is the students' choice. However,
at this time, I cannot say that all our laboratory instructors do the same
- that will be changing in the near future.
We also supply safety goggles for students. They are stored in a
UV safety goggle cabinet. Lens cleaner and soft tissue paper (Kim-Wi
pes or equivalent) are provided. Not every instructor turns on the UV
sterilization lamp after every lab. We do have
student lab aides, but they do not always remember to turn on the steriliz
ation lamp. (Another practice I intend to change.)
All these supplies have been paid for by laboratory fees. In the
current economic climate, however, the current lab fees will not cover the
costs of all these materials. We just replaced all the safety goggle
s with new ones in all our laboratories.
We have made a decision that starting in the Fall semester, students must
purchase their own safety goggles. (Available in the bookstore.) Shou
ld a student forget to bring their goggles to the laboratory, they can use
those that we have available, but we
will not be restocking those goggles in the future. As a result, our
current lab fees will cover the other materials such as gloves, lens
cleaner, and tissues along with normal breakage of glassware.
The local university has a student affiliate chapter of the ACS, and t
hey sell safety goggles and laboratory notebooks to the students. Tha
t's part of their fund raising for the year. As a Community College,
we do not have a student affiliate chapter
and we have decided that we are not set-up to go into the goggle business,
nor do we have the necessary security to handle the money involv
ed.
If your lab fees do not cover the cost of gloves, breakage, and other
consumables that are not covered by your departmental laboratory budget, th
en you should consider a modest increase in your lab fee.
David Katz
______________________________________________________________________
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David A. Katz &
nbsp;
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nsultant
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ite:
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_________________________________________________________________________
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, March 05, 2010 4:32 PM
Subject: [DCHAS-L] GLOVES IN STUDENT
LABS
As the staff of the
Chemistry & Biochemistry Teaching Labs, we have been asked to propose i
deas for saving money, as budgets are only getting tighter over the next fe
w years. One idea proposed is that we stop providing gloves ad lib. to stud
ents, but have them buy & bring their
own. We currently supply either nitrile or PVC examination (thin, single-u
se) gloves in our labs.
Do you provide/require gloves for student labs?
Sheila
--
Sheila M. Kennedy, CHO
Safety Coordinator
Chemistry & Biochemistry Teaching Laboratories
University of California, San Diego
(858) 534-0221
