Towards the implementation of a safety education program in a teaching and research institution

Education is a continuing process for improving the level of knowledge including the process of learning and acquiring information. It is widely believed that constant exposure to new ideas and skills makes people better workers, thinkers, and societal contributors. This paper presents and discusses some safety education strategies that were implemented to improve the safety level in a research and teaching institution. They were applied to our Basic Sciences School where chemical engineering is belonging. The aim was not to develop a new curricula program but to concentrate on what should be done with all the people present in research and teaching labs/buildings. Using over 10 years of experience as occupational safety and health specialists we could observe that better results are achieved when the involvement of all actors (meaning all the persons present in the labs) is effective. Encompassing everyone implies educating them beforehand. We did not develop the safety education included in the chemical engineering curricula but concentrate on the general safety education starting from the students performing their first practical labs, the hiring of new collaborators (whenever they are scientists, technicians or administrative staff) and the continuing education of all personnel. (C) 2015 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.