Are those shoes you're wearing lab safe? What do you do when you splash acid in your eye? Georgia Tech's School of Chemistry and Biochemistry has developed this video, in the choose-your-own-adventure style to help you learn how to get through the lab in one piece. Click your answer (sorry, doesn't work on mobiles) when the time comes and see if you're right.
Safety Training Plan
Everybody from the Georgia Tech community must receive basic safety training. In addition, all people who wish to conduct research in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry must receive laboratory safety training. Incoming graduate students receive this training during their orientation week. Other researchers (e.g., post-docs, undergraduates, visitors) must attend one of the training sessions offered by the office of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS). The EHS Training Tool is an interactive tools to help identify mandatory safety trainings based upon your occupation.
All new researchers should complete (i) a safety orientation and (ii) safety training plan. Those two documents and a training matrix can be downloaded as a PDF file here or a Word file here.
The schedule of safety trainings and links to register can be found in the following link: https://www.ehs.gatech.edu/training
| Safety Trainings | Recurrence | URL or Class Information | Taken by Everyone? | Taken by Lab Personnel & Students? |
| Right to Know Training | Annually | https://www.ehs.gatech.edu/rtk | X | X |
| Safety 101 | Initially + every 3 years | In class training or e-training, https://ehs.gatech.edu/chemical/training | X | |
| Receipt of Hazardous Materials | Initially + every 3 years | http://www.trainsweb.gatech.edu/courses/index#category-tutorials, Search for "Receipt of Hazardous Materials (Flash)" | X |
Research-specific Trainings
| Safety Training | Recurrence | URL or Class Information |
| BB Pathogens | Annually | http://www.usg.edu/facilities/training/pathogens/ |
| General Biosafety | Initially + every 3 years | https://www.ehs.gatech.edu/biosafety/training |
| Radioactive Materials | Annually | In class - sign up: https://www.ehs.gatech.edu/radiation/ram/training |
| Shipping Dangerous Goods | https://www.ehs.gatech.edu/chemical/shipping | |
| Laser | Once | https://www.ehs.gatech.edu/radiation/laser/training |
| Laser Awareness | Once | http://trains.gatech.edu/courses/index#view-8219 |
| X-ray | Initially + every 2 years | https://www.ehs.gatech.edu/radiation/xray/training |
Need more information on shipping chemicals or other potentially dangerous goods? https://www.ehs.gatech.edu/shipping
Videos
Inherently Safe: The Future of Risk Reduction
This video from the U.S.Chemical Safety Board (CSB) tells the story of the Bayer CroScience Pesticide waste tank explosion, which resulted in two fatalities. The CSB case study highlights the importance and criteria to consider to design processes that are inherently safe, including alternative chemicals and synthetic pathways.
Anatomy of a Disaster tells the story of one of the worst industrial accidents in recent U.S. history - the March 23, 2005, explosion at the British Petroleum refinery in Texas City, Texas, which killed 15 workers, injured 180 others, and caused billions of dollars in economic losses. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB), an independent federal agency, investigated the accident. The CSB produced this video in March 2008 based on its comprehensive 341-page public report issued in 2007.
The video is a detailed analysis and journey into learning all the factors that resulted in the accident. It includes a nine-minute animation detailing the events leading up to the blast. It features interviews with members of the CSB investigative team who spent two years studying the causes of the accident. Outside safety experts Prof. Trevor Kletz (Texas A&M University and Loughborough University, UK), Prof. Andrew Hopkins (Australian National University), and Mr. Glenn Erwin (United Steelworkers) provide insightful commentary on the significance of the accident to the world's petrochemical industry. Understanding of the key findings, recommendations, and lessons from this investigation will help prevent future accidents.
Modular safety videos on a range of laboratory safety and safety culture related topics.