From: McGrath Edward J <Edward.McGrath**At_Symbol_Here**REDCLAY.K12.DE.US>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Attire in Academic Laboratories
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2018 16:41:15 +0000
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Message-ID: BN3PR0301MB1249D6AAD0CFAF7DA73B768796E20**At_Symbol_Here**BN3PR0301MB1249.namprd03.prod.outlook.com
In-Reply-To <1109037139E1524980CF9CBEB2476618010B0E6EBA**At_Symbol_Here**UMF-EX10EMB1.umflint.edu>


Regarding the issue of attire, I'm curious how some of you handle the following (forgive me if this has come up on this discussion board before).

 

I teach introductory microbiology at a community college, and we work with live culture as well as open flames.  A few years ago, I had a student who wore a full burqa on the first night of class.  In lecture, she heard the beginning of my safety talk (which addresses apparel, specifically no flowing garments or jewelry).  When she came to lab, she had a hijab (only the head covering) and asked if it was acceptable.  Everything was fully contained, and her field of vision was unobstructed, so (after consulting our department head), she was permitted.  Much of the hijab was contained under her lab coat.

 

How have others addressed this situation?

 

Eddie McGrath

 

Edward J. McGrath

Supervisor of Science

Red Clay Consolidated School District

1502 Spruce Avenue

Wilmington, DE  19805

 

(302) 552-3768

 

We did not inherit the Earth from our parents.  We borrowed it from our children.

 

From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety [mailto:DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU] On Behalf Of Wilhelm, Monique
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2018 11:03 AM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Attire in Academic Laboratories

 

One of the complaints I often get from my faculty is that when they "worked for such and such" they didn't have to do x, especially my guy that worked at the USDA, implying that we have higher requirements than they do.  They do not realize that they are now in a different environment with different hazards for some reason.  So, yeah, having coffee at the bench may have been acceptable there, but not here in a lab that has things like phenol, nitric acid, and on and on.

 

Monique Wilhelm

Laboratory Manager

Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry

University of Michigan - Flint

 

From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety [mailto:DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU] On Behalf Of Noce, Tony
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2018 10:53 AM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Attire in Academic Laboratories

 

I realize that the prevailing view is that dinosaurs roamed the earth when I attended university, but I distinctly remember my primary laboratory instructor comparing our labs to the labs at Dow, Dupont, Merck, and Bayer.

Certainly not in scope, scale, or funding, but in form and function.

Our dress code was the same as that for these industrial chem/pharma labs.

 

"You need to be prepared for what you will face if you work in industry. It is my job to prepare you for that. If you don't like it, I suggest you major in biology."  

 

It seems to me that rather than a dress code for academic laboratories you should be looking for the dress code in industrial labs (handling similar chemicals, of course) and mimicking that.

 

Just a thoughtÉ

 

 

 

________________________

 

Anthony (Tony) Noce, ACSF

Vice President, EH&S Management Systems

Tetra Tech

 

Mobile  (518) 466-5608

Office    (518) 788-9026

________________________

 

From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety [mailto:DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU] On Behalf Of Heather McCollor
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2018 10:30 AM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Attire in Academic Laboratories

 

I suggest students get a pair of sweat pants, scrubs or cotton pajama pants.

Heather

 

On Tue, Jan 23, 2018 at 10:50 AM, Barbara Foster <bfoster**At_Symbol_Here**wvu.edu> wrote:

Safety Colleagues,

Do you permit your students to wear leggings/jeggings in your academic chemistry labs?

If not, have you included a section on this in your safety rules?

Would you be willing to share the wording in your safety rules with me?

I chair the departmental safety committee and I plan to include this topic as an agenda item for the February meeting.

As always, thank you for your assistance.

Barbara

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--

Heather McCollor
Laboratory Materials Supervisor
Macalester College
1600 Grand Ave
St Paul, MN  55105
651-696-6484

NAOSMM Site Selection Chair Aug 2015-Aug  2017

 

 

 

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