Chemical Safety: Protecting Ourselves And Our Environment;
Syllabus
Course Description:
This online intercollegiate course in laboratory safety is
intended for students majoring in chemistry or related
disciplines. This course will include a textbook, online
papers from experts in various areas of chemical health and
safety and other resources available on the world wide web
and elsewhere. Students will interact with their
counterparts at campuses across the nation. Emphasis is
placed on the "new culture of laboratory safety" in which
safety is an integral part of the design and execution of
an experiment.
Text:
National Research Council (1995), "Prudent Practices in the
Laboratory: Handling and Disposal of Chemicals",
Washington, D.C., National Academy Press.
(An electronic version of this text is available free at
http://www.nap.edu/books/0309052297/html/) [PP].
American Chemical Society Joint Board-Council Committee on Chemical Safety. 2003. Safety in Academic chemistry Laboratories Vol. 1, 7th. Ed. Washington, D.C.: American Chemical Society. (Single copies may be obtained free from the American Chemical Society's Office of Society Services by calling 800-227-5558 (or 202-872-6067) or emailing OSS@acs.org. Multiple copies are priced at $2.50 each for 2 through 199 copies and $1.50 each for 200 or more copies. An electronic version of this text is available at http://membership.acs.org/c/ccs/pubs/SACL_Students.pdf) [SACL]
Prerequisites:
One year each of general and organic chemistry
Objectives:
The new culture of laboratory safety articulated in the
National Academy of Science book "Prudent Practices" is
built around experimental planning. Safety is as much a
part the design and execution of an experiment as the
selection of reagents and glassware. "Prudent Practices"
notes that "the culture of laboratory safety depends
ultimately on the working habits of individual chemists and
their sense of teamwork for protection of themselves, their
neighbors, and the wider community and environment."
By linking students in many different campuses we hope to
foster this sense of teamwork and discuss ways of improving
the safety habits of laboratory workers. Students will be
able to ask and answer questions from each other and
experts. Safety and health involve evaluating hazards and
assessing risks. Students will have a better understanding
of what is involved in such decision making and the
consequences of poor decisions.
Tentative Outline:
The course would contain a core schedule of 10 weeks.
Because of different schedules at different schools, some
schools will have an additional week (or weeks) at the
beginning and at the end.
"Prudent Practices" has 9 Chapters. It is proposed that a
few of the topics listed below (1 to 9) be covered in
depth.
- Culture of Laboratory Safety
- Prudent Planning of Experiments
- Evaluating Hazards and Assessing Risks in the Laboratory
- Management of Chemicals
- Working with Chemicals
- Working with Laboratory Equipment
- Disposal of Waste
- Laboratory Facilities
- Government Regulation of Laboratories
Course Management:
Each participating school will be responsible for obtaining
permission to offer the course either by initiating a "new
course proposal" or by using an existing "topics" course.
Credit and grading will be the responsibility of the host
schools. This course is planned to be a three credit
course.
Class meetings
Each instructor at the participating schools will meet with
his/her students and interact with them. The nature of
these interactions is left to the faculty at the host
institutions. Discussion of classroom activities may occur
on the OLCC-FAC Discussion list.
OLCC Website
Course description, core course schedule, expert papers and
links to websites will be available. This site may be used
to provide links to student papers.
Scott Van Bramer (a member of CCCE) will establish and
maintain this website. http://science.widener.edu/svb/olcc_safety/.
OLCC-STU and OLCC-FAC MAJORDOMO DISCUSSION LISTS
Students registered for the course at the participating
schools will be subscribed to the OLCC-STU Discussion
List. The authors of papers on the OLCC website will be
subscribed as will the course instructors. Students will
use the discussion list to ask questions of the authors of
papers and other students. The list will be used for
discussion between students and between authors and
students. Course instructors will monitor this list.
The course instructors and authors of papers will be
subscribed to the OLCC-FAC Discussion List. Students will
not be subscribed to this list. This list will be used by
the instructors in planning the course, interacting with
other instructors and the authors of papers. Questions may
be asked and discussion will occur.
Donald Rosenthol will establish and manage the olcc-fac and
olcc-stu discussion lists.
Information about previous OLCC Courses may be found on the
CCCE website:
http://www.ched-ccce.org/olcc/
A paper describing the course -
"Environmental and Industrial Chemistry"
in detail may be found at:
http://www.clarkson.edu/~rosen2/olcc.html
A paper entitled "Future On-Line Intercollegiate and
Interscholastic Courses" may be found at:
http://www.ched-ccce.org/olcc/rosenthal1996.html
This page is maintained by
Scott Van Bramer
Department of Chemistry
Widener University
Chester, PA 19013
Please send any comments, corrections, or suggestions to
svanbram@science.widener.edu.
This page has been accessed
times since 6/1 /2003 .
Last Updated 3/5/2003