Improvement of Lab Safety Archives - eShipGlobal

Are You Collaborative In Your Research?

wpadmin — Tue, 16 Aug 2016 18:58:44 +0000

Global Collaborative Research

“Scientific research is one of the most exciting and rewarding of occupations.” — Frederick Sanger

Science is an important part of our society. It helps us understand how our world works and aid in ensuring humanity’s survival. Scientific research is usually divided into two classifications: applied research and basic research. Basic research seeks to understand the world and universe; while applied research seek to help improve human life. The focus of research has shifted from basic research to science that aims to solve global challenges.

Global Challenges

Global challenges are just that, global. They extend beyond borders and disciplines, making collaborative science research critical to solve issues. Many of these global challenges are a part of the Sustainable Development Goals, also known as Agenda 2030, put forth by the United Nations. Global challenges include improving human health, availability of clean water, sustainable energy, combating climate change, and more.

Shift in the Focus of Scientific Research

With the focus shifting to applied scientific research to solve global issues, it is understandable that science would shift to be more collaborative. The key to solving these large scale global challenges may reside in global collaborative science. This collaboration will include multiple different scientific disciplines and research institutions across the world.

Benefits of Collaborative Global Science

Collaborative science research has many advantages, an important one being the ability to share and exchange resources. It can also help build alliances between various research teams: academic, government, and private industry. These alliances can carry into other science departments, allowing multiple research groups from different disciplines to work on a single scientific project. In addition, scientists collaborating with other facilities or laboratories may have access to vital equipment they may not have had otherwise.

Challenges of Global Collaborative Science

Unfortunately, there are challenges to global collaborative science and collaborative science in general. Key challenges include: cultural and religious differences, funding and resource differences, technical or national secrets, communication, language barriers, cost and export control. Some of these challenges are social and are harder to address, but several of the other challenges can be solved through collaborative software and procedures. For instance, there are several tools that can help simplify the collaboration process.

Tools for Collaborative Research

There are multiple laboratory information management systems (LIMS) that allow for cloud collaboration. This type of software that can help researchers manage their projects, share files, view project data, control access and manage inventory. These programs can help address the challenges of communication and management. They may even help with funding and resource challenges: if researchers can have access to the resources and data from larger, more well-funded laboratories.

Limited resources, cost and export control can be addressed using software, like eShipLab. Research often has timelines that they need to stick to due to limited access to resources or equipment. Delays in shipping or not being able to directly share resources with connected laboratories, can be both time consuming and costly. eShipLab allows for easy and compliant shipping between labs. This can allow labs to share resources easier and reduce the risk of shipping delays. Both of which can help reduce cost.

Future of Scientific Research

The world of science is already becoming more and more international. Many research teams consist of scientists and academics from around the world. The next step to these multinational teams is international research projects. With the world becoming more and more interconnected through the internet and global challenges become more pressing, there will be an increased need for collaborative research on an international level.

Your Call to Action

Improve your research institution’s collaboration with eShipLab. eShipLab allows you to hazardous materials and dangerous goods simply and compliantly. In addition, our software can allow for multiple connected research labs to ship resources between each other for a more collaborative system. To hear how eShipLab can improve your research institution, contact us at (972) 518-1775 using extension 116.

By: Ashleigh Cue

Links:

The post Are You Collaborative In Your Research? appeared first on eShipGlobal.

The Improvement of University Lab Safety

wpadmin — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 16:27:19 +0000

There are many dangers that reside in laboratories: fires; explosions; normal and chemical burns, flesh wounds and other effects of contact with chemicals or chemical vapors. Some of these hazards pose more risk than others, but all can be serious and should be treated so.

Lab Safety Hazards of Old

Laboratory safety is key to preventing injuries and accidents from occurring. In the past, lab safety was virtually non-existent. Scientists would often work with chemicals without proper protective gear. One scientist even smoked while working in a lab. Due to the lack of safety procedures and equipment, the accidents that occurred in the laboratories did have some serious repercussions. For instance, both Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac (1778–1850) and Robert Bunsen (1811–1899) suffered eye damage after chemical explosions. Other scientists suffered from poisoning and/or medical harm from coming into contact with chemicals or chemical vapors. Over the last several decades, however, we have had several changes to laws that put forth new rules for lab safety.

Occupational Safety and Health Act

In 1970, President Nixon signed the Occupational Safety and Health Act that set standards designed to protect workers. These standards required employers and labs to implement practices, methods, or processes to appropriately protect workers. One such change required labs to provide protective gear to scientists: gear such as protective eye-wear and lab coats. However, laboratory safety is an ever changing process. Lab accidents are investigated and recommendations are made to improve safety.

Recent Events Which Changed Lab Safety

University of California, Los Angeles

A laboratory accident that made headlines occurred at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2008. A student, Sheharbano “Sheri” Sangji, suffered second and third degree burns from a chemical fire that took place in the lab. Sheri was not fortunate and died from the injuries weeks later. The fire started after a syringe stopper came off, spilling a highly flammable and air-sensitive chemical onto Sheri’s synthetic sweater. At the time, UCLA had not implemented a policy that required students and staff to wearing protective gear in the laboratory. They also were accused of not providing proper safety training to Sheri. As a result, the university was fined about $68,000 and faced felony charges. Since the accident, UCLA implemented a policy that required protective gear to be worn, including the requirement that scientists working in chemistry labs must wear blue flame-resistant lab coats.

Texas Tech University

In 2010, Texas Tech University also faced investigations after an explosion occurred in a chemistry lab. The explosion occurred after a exploded due to mishandling. The two principal investigations (PI) had assigned the task of synthesizing and testing a new compound to a senior and first-year graduate student. The investigators believed they had verbally established a 100 milligram limit for the compound, but no formal communication or verification for compliance was found. The two students went above the limit and tried to press out clumps in the compound, which resulted in the explosion. The senior graduate student survived the blast, but was seriously injured.

University of Hawaii at Manoa

Unfortunately, UCLA and Texas Tech were not the only school to have a serious accident in a chemistry lab. In 2016, the University of Hawaii at Manoa had an explosion occur in their lab that cause a postdoctoral researcher to lose an arm. This accident was the result of a static charge that entered the gas tank from the digital pressure gauge. The tank was not properly grounded. Prior to the explosion another researcher told a PI that she heard a clicking sound on a 1 gallon vessel’s digital pressure gauge. Further investigation by the PI revealed that the petri dishes inside the vessel were singed and cracked. The investigator advised to the researcher that this vessel should not be used again. The same digital gauge model was on the tank that exploded.

University Labs Under Scrutiny

These accidents brought scrutiny on the lab safety in university labs. Especially the fact that students and staff are working with dangerous substances without proper training or supervision. These accidents also emphasize the need for proper documentation and effective hazard communication. While these are horrible accidents, universities and laboratories have learned from the mistakes made. After each of these incidents, new standards for safety were implemented by the schools in hopes that similar accidents would not occur again.

Promoting a Lab Safety Culture

All of these accidents had serious, deadly or potentially deadly consequences. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have increased the scrutiny university research sectors receive. Universities are stepping up by improving upon their lab safety procedures and programs. Hopefully, other universities and labs will learn from these mistakes and work to promote a lab safety culture within their own institutions.

Call-to-Action

The requirement of safely handling hazardous material is not restricted to inside laboratories. Proper shipping is also required. eShipLab is a simple, accurate, easy-to-use system for shipping hazardous materials and dangerous goods. It is compliant with all government regulations, so you can ship your lab materials with confidence. For more information on how eShipLab can help your laboratory, contact us at (972) 518-1775 using extension 116.

By: Ashleigh Cue

Source Links:

http://ehstoday.com/protective-clothing/are-you-prepared-top-5-laboratory-hazards

https://www.chemheritage.org/distillations/magazine/not-so-great-moments-in-chemical-safety

https://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/elg/osha.htm

http://dailybruin.com/2012/08/20/tragedy-at-ucla-followed-by-requirements-for-protective-gear-research-into-lab-safety/

http://www.csb.gov/csb-releases-investigation-into-2010-texas-tech-laboratory-accident-case-study-identifies-systemic-deficiencies-in-university-safety-management-practices/

http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2016/08/d-j-vu-all-over-again

http://www.hawaii.edu/news/wp-content/themes/davinci-20-child/docs/report-1-university-of-hawaii.pdf

https://www.revealnews.org/article/ucla-researchers-death-draws-scrutiny-to-lab-safety/

http://www.universitybusiness.com/article/new-era-lab-safety

The post The Improvement of University Lab Safety appeared first on eShipGlobal.