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CHAS Innovative Project Grant 2022 Project Plan

Chemical Information Sources Outreach Project (“CSL in a Box”)

Last updated: May 18, 2022

Project Overview

In 2021, the Pistoia Chemical Safety Library (CSL) was transferred to CAS for further development. The CSL is designed to collect bench level reports of unexpected chemical reactions at the laboratory scale from the chemistry community worldwide.

This Innovative Project will work with key CSL stakeholders (bench chemists, laboratory managers, EHS professionals from the lab environment, and chemical information professionals) to optimize the process for collecting and sharing laboratory chemical safety information with the CSL and other laboratory risk assessment resources, such as PubChem and NotVooDoo X .

Strategic Elements

This project aligns with many elements of the ACS strategic plan:

  • The ACS value of professionalism, safety and ethics;
  • The goal of providing safety information solutions to address issues facing the world’s scientific community;
  • The goal of empowering members and member groups by providing access to safety resources and networks; and
  • Supporting excellence in chemical safety education using innovative techniques. 

Objectives

  • Develop a CSL in a Box module to be provided either independently or as part of a larger chemical lab safety workshop that describes the role of the CSL relative to other publicly available safety information sources and how safety information sharing can be incorporated into lab work flow and risk assessment using the CSL. The list of other resources to be included are listed on the Zotero page below.
  • The CSL in a Box presentation will leverage other outreach resources developed by the ACS Committee on Chemical Safety, including videos, rubrics and guidance documents.
  • Raise awareness of the CSL and other chemical safety information resources in the laboratory chemistry community through strategic partnerships with both ACS and external stakeholders. Partnership agreements have been established with the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety (CHAS), ACS Division of Chemical Information CINF and the Campus Safety Health and Environmental Management Association (CSHEMA).

Tasks Outline

  1. Conduct focus group discussions with key stakeholder groups to define the user requirements for CSL information. The stakeholder groups include:
    • bench level chemists, particularly chemistry graduate students;
    • laboratory managers;
    • Environmental Health and Safety professionals who serve laboratory communities; and
    • chemical information professionals who support literature review and information management in research laboratory settings
  2. Based on these discussions develop a conceptual overview of user requirements for each of these stakeholder groups and how the CSL serves these needs
  3. Develop a powerpoint presentation and templates to serve as users guides that support use of the CSL and other information resources identified as important by each of these stakeholder groups.
  4. Recruit and train chemists, EHS professionals. and chemical information professionals to use these tools as part of their professional work.
  5. Develop a system for tracking these presentations in order to understand how the presentations and/or CSL can be improved.

Calendar of Events

  • June 29: Lab safety webinar for Laboratory Manager magazine will include discussion of risk assessment resources. Ralph will use this presentation to recruit participants in a virtual focus group for this stakeholder group. Webinar scheduled for June 29.
  • July 13: Hold a focus group presentation at the July, 2022 CSHEMA national conference to gather feedback about user requirements from the academic EHS community. Co-presented by Kimi Brown of Bioraft
  • July 20: In conjunction with an in person “RAMP in the Research Lab” workshop, hold a focus group discussion with the Joint Safety Teams of the Univ of Minnesota’s Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Departments.
  • September, 2022: Hold a virtual focus group session with the Division of Chemical Information 
  • Spring, 2023: ACS webinar reporting on progress

Anticipated Budget Requirements

  • Minnesota JST workshop expenses: $2000 (travel and lunch for participants)
  • CSHEMA presentation: $750 conference registration

Project Team

Relevant Links:

This project page is found at https://dchas.org/chas-ipg-2022/

The Zotero library that collects resources to be included in the final presentation for risk assessment at the laboratory scale can be found at https://www.zotero.org/groups/4675894/chemical_risk_assessment_resources/library