The ACS Committee on Chemical Safety is pleased to release another short video about safety in the research lab setting, This video describes two tools that are important in sharing your safety lessons learned in your academic publications: RAMP and FAIR. Watch the video here and use the safety information resources below to implement these ideas in your lab!
Chemical Hazard Information
- GHS: Globally Harmonized System Hazard Classifications from the United Nations
- LCSS: Laboratory Chemical Safety Summaries (from PubChem of the National Library of Medicine)
- CAMEO Chemicals: Computer-Aided Management of Emergency Operations from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) includes chemical reactivity information
- RTECS: Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances Database originated by NIOSH, now commercially maintained, of toxicity data
- HSDB: Hazardous Substances Data Bank chemical specific safety data from the National Library of Medicine
- Bretherick’s Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards Elsevier (some information available through HSDB)
- Nanotechnology Safety Resources
- ACS Committee on Chemical Safety
Scientific Sharing & Publication Opportunities and Considerations
- ACS Chemical Health & Safety (journal) Topics and methodologies that advance chemical health and safety
- ACS Publications Author Guidelines Safety Considerations (link to Communicating Safety Information free pdf)
- ACS Guide to Scholarly Communications (safety chapter openly available) Chapters on Communicating Safety Information (1.3) and Data Sharing (3.1)
- Chemical Safety Library Crowd-sourced hazardous reaction data (managed by CAS and the Pistoia Alliance)
- Not Voodoo X.4 Crowd-sourced “Rookie Mistakes” and honest mistakes (U. Rochester)
- DCHAS-L ACS Division of Chemical Health & Safety community exchange
Best Practice Reference Sources
- Prudent Practices in the Laboratory (2011) from the National Research Council
- Chemical safety publications from the ACS Committee on Chemical Safety
- Safety references from the ACS Division of Chemical Health & Safety
- ACS Safety Resources RAMP description, videos, webinars
- FAIR: Findable, Accessible Interoperable, Re-Usable Data Publishing Guiding Principles (Force11 Research Communication community)
Key points related to the poster:
- Risk assessment is important for researchers to document locally and refresh on a regular basis as part of their laboratory planning and operations. This assessment needs to reflect specific aspects of their work, such as process variables, available safety equipment, and the expertise of the chemists doing the work.
- Lab process safety analysis is an important opportunity for professional collaboration with both environmental health and safety staff & information professionals. They can help you identify sources AND document your lab practices FAIRly; this assistance will help you build habits that will pay off when you are ready to publish your work.
- Industry is looking for chemists with the professional skill of formally assessing risk and share at the company level
- Digital/online information sharing in the 21st Century environment involves different skills than laboratory work in the 20th Century. There are new, broader expectations for sharing raw data and safe operations. The onus of documentation is on researchers in order to share your process, data, safety observations etc. with the community in peer reviewed articles