General Safety Policies
The safety and well being of its students, faculty, and staff
come above all other considerations at Duke University. No experiment that
subjects personnel to unreasonable risk is acceptable, no matter how desirable
the information which might be obtained. It is the first duty of research
directors, instructors, supervisors and all persons in authority to provide
for safety in the environment and operations under their control.
It is the Chemistry Department's policy to comply not only with
legal safety standards, but to act positively, where it can, to prevent injury,
ill-health, damage and loss arising from work carried out within its building.
The Department seeks to encourage all its members to participate in and contribute
to the establishment and observance of safe working practices. This is not
only a moral duty, failure to do so can constitute legal grounds for negligence
suits.
A discussion of Negligence Suits in Chemistry Teaching, J. Chem.
Educ. 60, 358 (1983) states, "In all cases it is the teacher who is legally
responsible for the safety of his or her students. The teacher must foresee
hazards to the extent that any reasonably prudent person would". An aim of
this manual and the Duke Chemistry Department safety program is to provide
the required information on which to base a prudent approach to safe laboratory
operations.
SAFETY GUIDELINES FOR UNDERGRADUATES INVOLVED
IN INDEPENDENT STUDY
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Students should be assigned to work in laboratories in which
graduate students and/or postdoctoral associates are also working.
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Students should receive instruction and close supervision
directly from their faculty mentor, although a senior graduate student or
postdoctoral associate working with the faculty member may also be involved.
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Students should not work alone, particularly at night
or on weekends, on operations involving chemicals or other hazards of
the type covered in the Chemistry Department Safety Manual. If work at night
or on weekends is required, it should only be done with the express permission
of the faculty mentor and with specific arrangements to avoid working alone.
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Supervising faculty and, if appropriate, associate supervisors,
should discuss with the student the potential hazards of all experiments
to be carried out, and closely supervise preparations for all new potentially
hazardous operations.
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Students should agree with their supervising professors
on a weekly work schedule and should make every effort to maintain this
schedule.
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Students must read the French Family Science Centery Safety
Manual and sign a statement that they have done so, before they are allowed
to begin laboratory work.
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An outline of the independent study project, including the
goal(s) and as far as practical, the kinds of experiments to be carried
out, methods to be used and data to be collected, as well as a proposed
schedule of accomplishments, should be completed (by the student and faculty
member together) before the beginning of any hands-on laboratory work. This will serve as a guide so that it is clear to student
and mentor what each expects at each stage of the project and for the overall
project. It would be appropriate for each to sign and keep a copy. This
document should also state where the lab space for the project is and who
else is to be involved in the supervision (if anyone).
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In order to comply with the above guidelines, those
faculty without graduate students or postdoctoral associates or without
lab space should enter into collaborations with other faculty who have students
and facilities, or at least make arrangements to "borrow" appropriate lab
space. If at all possible, these arrangements should be made (at least tentatively)
before students are accepted for supervision. If necessary, the Coordinator
of Independent Study can be called on to facilitate arrangements.