Federal and State regulations require that all personnel working in laboratory areas, including faculty and visiting researchers, be trained according to OSHA guidelines.  IIT’s Campuswide Safety Working Group would like all IIT students, staff and faculty to know that they now can self-enroll in training for laboratory safety.  This training is an annual requirement for students and staff who work in research laboratories (areas with hazards greater than a normal office environment).  Campus policy requires that safety training be provided for all students in research laboratories.

A Blackboard Training and Development (BB_TD) course, “BB_TD_SAFETY” features twelve quizzes on lab safety issues.  It is now available in the IIT Blackboard Academic Suite.  Directions for self-enrollment in the course are included at the end of this post.  The 12 online quizzes in this course are companions to 12 DVDs on laboratory safety available to students and faculty at Galvin Library.  Subject areas and the DVD call numbers in Galvin Library are as follows:

• Orientation to laboratory safety DVD.T55.2.O642011
• Material safety data sheets in the laboratory DVD.T55.2.M382011
• Planning for laboratory emergencies DVD.T55.2.P652011
• Laboratory ergonomics DVD.T55.2.L332011
• Electrical safety in the laboratory DVD.T55.2.E442011
• Safety showers and eye washes in the laboratory DVD.T55.2.S2442011
• Flammables and explosives in the laboratory DVD.T55.2.F432011
• Handling compressed gas cylinders in the laboratory DVD.T55.2.H362011
• Laboratory hoods DVD.T55.2.L3322011
• Safe handling of laboratory glassware DVD.T55.2.S242011
• Preventing contamination in the laboratory DVD.T55.2.P742011
• The OSHA formaldehyde standard DVD.T55.2.O842011

Which quizzes should students take?  There are 12 quizzes in this course.  Everyone should take the first five quizzes listed above, and should take all quizzes pertaining to their laboratory work or expected hazards.  Instructors should direct their students and lab personnel to view the appropriate DVDs and take the appropriate lab safety quizzes.  Instructors should supplement the above materials with their own safety instruction, training, and testing appropriate to the hazards of their particular laboratory, workshop, or area.   All items for this course are located in Main Reserves at Galvin Library (ask for them at the front desk).   The DVDs are available for students to use only in the library for up to two hours.  Instructors may check out the accompanying binders for up to 24 hours and the DVDs for up to six hours for in-class presentation. Instructors wanting to check out the binders plus the DVD must request them; otherwise they’ll get only the DVDs.  All items are searchable in the library catalog and are also listed in Galvin Library course reserves under the course number “SAF200.”

Use of the above materials in the Blackboard course is designed to help faculty meet, in part, the requirement for training as set forth in IIT campus policy, “Chemical Hygiene Policy for Lab Safety Standards,” at Section 5.J which states:  “Training:  faculty, staff, and/or students working in a laboratory must be provided training by the responsible department.  At a minimum, training must include: Contents of (Chemical Hygiene) Plan, availability of Plan, location of MSDSs, potential hazards in the lab, methods to detect the presence of a hazardous chemical, control methods for potential exposures, use of personal protective equipment, managing wastes and emergency response actions.”

The BB_TD_SAFETY course is also designed to help meet, in part, the requirement for training of students as set forth in IIT Campus Policy, “Instructional Laboratory and Workshop Safety Policy,” at Sec I.: “…all departments at IIT offering laboratory and/or workshops course work must provide students with laboratory and/or workshop safety instruction.  Such instruction should be offered prior to the students’ use of the laboratories and/or workshops…”

If you have questions regarding these laboratory safety training materials, please contact the co-instructors of the course: Cindy Chaffee, Director of Environmental Health and Safety at cchaffee@iit.edu or Glenn Krell, Director of Research Compliance at krell@iit.edu.

Instructions for Self-Enrollment
Within Blackboard, go to the Courses tab (top right next to My Institution).
Enter “Safety” in the Course Search box or click Browse Course Catalog. (If browsing, can search or can look by term: Training & Professional Development).
The course is BB_TD_SAFETY and when you roll over the Course ID, you should see a circle.  Click that and you can self-enroll.