This book has been prepared by a National Research Council (NRC) committee in response to the growing recognition of the central place of chemistry in society, the special risks that are encountered by people who work with chemicals in the laboratory, and the potential hazards that are presented to the public by their use, transport, and disposal. Increased appreciation of the hazards related to certain chemicals has fostered a new “culture of safety” in many laboratories where chemicals are handled and chemical waste is generated and disposed of. Due in part to the publication of the NRC’s Prudent Practices for Handling Hazardous Chemicals in Laboratories (hereinafter Prudent Practices 1981), and Prudent Practices for Disposal of Chemicals from Laboratories (hereinafter Prudent Practices 1983), there have been dramatic changes in attitudes toward shared responsibility by laboratory practitioners, management, and government at the federal, state, and local levels. These have been reflected in the OSHA Laboratory Standard (29 CFR 1910.1450; reprinted as Appendix A), which provides a legal, institutionalized, performance-based framework for safe, responsible laboratory work. There have also been important technical improvements that reduce the risks of handling chemicals in the laboratory and the cost of handling chemical waste.
Charged with the responsibility of evaluating the chemical, regulatory, and educational changes that have had an impact on the handling of chemicals in the laboratory since the previous reports were published, the committee has assessed the needs of all those who manage, handle, and dispose of chemicals in the laboratory workplace, where relatively small quantities of hazardous materials are used on a nonproduction basis. The committee was chosen for its breadth of expertise in chemistry, education, and environmental health and safety operations, and it has also called on a wider community of experts through the appointment of special subcommittees for assessing chemical hazards, design of laboratory space and equipment, pollution prevention, and the disposal of multihazardous waste. In addition, a number of meetings of the committee with different chemical user groups have helped to structure and clarify the committee’s recommendations.
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This volume was prepared primarily for those who use chemicals in laboratories, ranging from researchers and students to a broad array of technicians. Chemicals are handled not only by chemists, but also by biologists, physicists, geologists, materials engineers, and others. Accordingly, this volume is intended for general use but with the recognition that a basic familiarity with chemical nomenclature and its relation to molecular structure and chemical behavior is necessary in order to understand and use many parts of this work. A wider audience of administrative and chemical hygiene officers and environmental health and safety officers in educational, chemical, and regulatory institutions is also envisioned.
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Although some readers may wish to become familiar with the entire book, others may be concerned with only one or two chapters, such as Chapter 3 (Evaluating Hazards and Assessing Risks in the Laboratory), Chapter 4 (Management of Chemicals), or Chapter 5 (Working with Chemicals). Others may be concerned with only Chapter 7 (Disposal of Waste) or Chapter 9 (Governmental Regulation of Laboratories). In deference to readers whose use of this book may be infrequent and specifically focused, or may perhaps occur under emergency conditions, the chapters are free-standing, even if this arrangement leads to repetition of some topics, albeit within different contexts.
The new culture of laboratory safety implements the priority of “safety first” through a greatly increased emphasis on experiment planning, including habitual attention to risk assessment and consideration of hazards for oneself, one’s fellow workers, and the public. So important is the formal framework for experiment planning that this volume has been structured around the sequence of steps described in Chapter 2. The key word “prudence” provides a middle pathway between the extremes of stultifying overregulation and a reckless rush to “get the job done” in the laboratory. A prudent attitude toward dealing with hazards in the laboratory is characterized by a determination to make every effort to be informed about risks and reduce them to a minimum while recognizing that the notion of ”zero risk” in laboratory operations (or any other workplace) is an impossible ideal. However, an accident-free workplace can be approached by setting a goal of zero incidents and zero excuses. Continuous basic respect and care for the health and safety of laboratory workers and the greater society constitute the starting point for Prudent Practices in the Laboratory: Handling and Disposal of Chemicals.
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