At UCS D we responded to the promptings of our industrial partners & began to require lab coats on all lab students & TA about 5 years ago. The staff was already wearing them routinely.

  & nbsp;         Staff and student wor ker coats come from a laundry service.

            Students purchase their own and we purchase 1 for each TA when they start to work for us. Stu dents and TAs launder their own, as they see fit. There are some really fil thy ones walking around here.

& nbsp;

Sheila

--
Sheila M. Kennedy, CHO
Safety Coordinato r
Chemistry & Biochemistry Teaching Laboratories
University of Ca lifornia, San Diego
(858) 534-0221

-----Original Message-----
From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Humphrey, Karalyn J.
Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2011 9:22 AM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Lab Coat policy query

Greetings!

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My university is looking at rewriting their lab coat policy to make them mandatory for certain lower level teaching labs.  What we're currently trying to iron out are the details of the followi ng:

1)      Are the students responsible f or keeping up with their own lab coat, or is it the department's responsibi lity to store the coats for all the students?

2)      Who is responsible for laundering the coats - the department or the students?

We have a lab enrollme nt of several thousand students.  My current thinking is to allow the students to keep up with and launder their own coats, except in the case of a chemical spill.  But I wanted to put out this query and see what ot her institutions were doing.

Thank you,

Karen Humphrey

Laboratory Coordinator & Safety Officer / Part-time Lecturer

Baylor Univ. Dept. of Chemistry and Biochem istry

Office: BSB E.111

Phone: (254) 710-2002