Chemical Safety in Chemistry Departments Laboratories at Iraqi Universities

Abstract

Health and safety is a key concern in any chemistry laboratory because of the potential risks in handling hazardous materials. These risks can be eliminated or minimized by promoting good laboratory practices as well as providing proper safety equipments. Although, there are legislations to govern health and safety aspects in the workplace, which are applicable to universities, safety training for students is not always sufficient to promote good safety practices and the situation varies greatly from one university to another.
The aim of this paper is to examine the status of chemical safety in chemistry departments at Iraqi universities, which is also applicable to the situation of other developed countries. In order to carry out this study, a survey on health and safety was constructed and delivered to heads of chemistry departments of science colleges at public Iraqi universities. The survey queried the availability of safety procedures, documentation and provision of safety equipments in the chemistry departments.
Approximately third of heads did not respond, which shows lack of appreciation of health and safety issues. The situation is further complicated by a culture of cover-up and fear of being viewed negatively. As a result, approximately third of the heads of departments did not respond to the survey despite repeated requests.
Most of those responded to the survey indicated that their departments have safety manuals, safety committees/officers and that they provide health and safety training to staff and students. They also indicated that they provide safety courses as part of the chemistry curriculum. However, only half of the chemistry departments had incidents report and safety webpage.
The provision of safety equipments in the chemistry departments varied greatly from one department to another. Although, all heads responded to the survey agreed that their departments had basic safety equipments such as fire extinguishers and fume hoods, a fifth of those responded did not have gloves and a quarter did not have goggles and first aid kits. Only a quarter of those responded had shower stations, a third had eyewash stations and only half had proper provisions for chemical waste.
This study showed that the situation of health and safety varied greatly between chemistry departments in Iraq. The situation is further complicated by governmental cuts in spending, which made heads of departments allocate funds for acquisition of chemicals, glassware and instruments rather than on training and purchasing health and safety equipments. It is beyond belief that some departments don’t even provide gloves and goggles for their students, which highlights serious health and safety concerns.
The heads of chemistry departments have an obligation to convey the true health and safety state in their departments to the ministry of higher education. They should seek extra governmental funding to deal with some of the serious lapses of health and safety that are uncovered by this study.