Chemical Education Today
Book & Media Reviews
Building Student Safety Habits for the Workplace edited by Mickey Sarquis Terrific Science Press: Middletown, OH, 2000. Instructor’s Edition: 290 pp, ISBN 1883822246 (spiral bound), $58. Student Edition: 216 pp, ISBN 1883822181 (spiral bound), $52 reviewed by Carl P. Fictorie
Building Student Safety Habits for the Workplace is one of a very few textbooks on chemical hygiene and laboratory safety, rather than being a handbook or reference volume. The book’s theme derives from a principle espoused in the National Academy’s Prudent Practices in the Laboratory (1): “If good habits are inculcated from the beginning, participation in the culture of safety will be natural and painless…” (p 3). The textbook takes the vast, overwhelming, and often confusing array of chemical hygiene and laboratory safety principles and literature and distills them into an introductory college-level textbook that is brief, comprehensive, and well-organized. The textbook contains eight chapters and a glossary, but no index. The first chapter, The Culture of Laboratory Safety, explains the basis for introducing safety practices early in the chemistry curriculum, describes the safety culture, and introduces the student to the foundational literature. The remaining chapters cover the basics of chemical hygiene and laboratory safety: Precautionary Labels, Material Safety Data Sheets, Using Protective Equipment, Handling Laboratory Equipment Safely, Safe Handling, Storage, and Disposal of Chemicals, Emergency Equipment, and Safety Planning and Standard Operating Procedures. Each chapter has multiple sections addressing topics in each area. The chapters in the student edition open with a series of laboratory incident reports; stories of real accidents that occurred because good safety practices were not followed. The reports are followed by a background discussion, laying the groundwork for the details of later sections. Most sections contain either an activity, an assignment, or a laboratory experiment that applies the concepts. The instructor’s edition contains all of the pages found in the student edition (denoted with a side bar) plus additional pages with objectives, including references to the Voluntary Industry Standards, a brief rationale, section summaries, teaching ideas, demonstrations, set-up information and sample data for labs and activities, answers to questions, and references. A minor problem is that both editions use continuous pagination, so page numbers do not match between the two editions. Both editions are soft cover and spiral bound, with black and white line drawings, giving the text the feel of a laboratory manual. The book is a very good teaching tool. The writing is clear, concrete, interesting, and flows smoothly. The examples 1384
are explicit and captivating. Students are often expected to construct knowledge. For example, the assignment on exploring MSDSs has students studying examples to learn what is and is not included in an MSDS. The textbook also evaluates accepted standards. For example, both the strengths and weaknesses of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) fire diamond labeling system are discussed. The book is written at a level that could be used in any college-level chemistry course, with the caveat that some knowledge of chemical nomenclature, both inorganic and organic, is needed. One of the highlights is the inclusion of several interesting demonstrations and hands-on activities, including the acid-in-the-eye simulation, a glove permeation experiment, and a method to evaluate fume hood performance. Full instructions are included. However, these activities also illustrate the text’s main shortcoming. Throughout the book there is an emphasis on planning ahead for safety and using proper protective equipment. However, the text does not practice what it preaches. Each of these activities is prefaced with the note that safety precautions are not included in the text and the instructor is expected to provide that information or reference the institution’s standard procedures. Unfortunately, unless the instructor can develop the needed procedures, students are not provided with examples of how to select personal protective equipment or what a standard operating procedure looks like. The book contains an excellent set of references to the major safety handbooks and resources, both in print and online. The opening chapter provides a list of about 28 books described as the foundation of a “good safety library”. It would be useful, however, if the list were prioritized in some way, as some of these sources are more important generally, some deal only with specific topics, and are valuable primarily as a library resource. The book cites relevant resources, but does not use a standard bibliographic format, choosing only to mention the book title. General references for a given chapter are included only in the instructor’s edition, not in the student edition. The authors expect that the reader has access to a number of the general references, especially with regard to regulatory details or pertinent safety data on specific chemicals. This approach is consistent with the nature of the textbook and the stated intention of teaching students how to use the more detailed resources. The editor and contributing authors recommend that the textbook be used as a supplement to all laboratory courses so that safety becomes integrated into the student’s laboratory experience. Its organization allows for great flexibility in coverage of the chapters. The first chapter should be used early in the curriculum. Chapters 2 and 3, dealing with labeling and MSDSs, should be done in order. Beyond this, the chapters are largely independent and, in many cases, even individual sections can be used. A dilemma arises about when to require students to purchase this text. Even though most of the material is suitable, there is too much to cover in a general chemistry course, and given the small fraction of these students who go on to take
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 80 No. 12 December 2003 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu
Chemical Education Today edited by
Jeffrey Kovac University of Tennessee Knoxville, TN 37996-1600
organic chemistry and the even smaller fraction who take advanced courses, expecting all freshmen to purchase this book as well as a regular textbook and lab manual would be excessive. It might be more prudent to have copies available via library reserve for general and organic chemistry. The book could easily be required for the advanced labs of the major so that the cost is spread over several courses. Overall, I found the book to be a fresh approach to safety instruction, superior to most, if not all, other published materials. However, it falls short of the stated goal of providing “busy instructors … a convenient starting point for building students’ safety knowledge and skills” (p ix) by failing to provide instructors, some of whom may not have had adequate safety training, the needed safety information to understand the hazards associated with the activities provided. The text-
book would be a good addition to the personal library of faculty responsible for laboratory courses. Literature Cited 1. Committee on Prudent Practices for Handling, Storage, and Disposal of Chemicals in Laboratories, Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology, Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Applications, National Research Council. Prudent Practices in the Laboratory: Handling and Disposal of Chemicals; National Academy Press: Washington, DC, 1995.
Carl P. Fictorie is in the Department of Chemistry, Dordt College, 498 4th Avenue NE, Sioux Center, IA 51250-1697;
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