fofety in the chernicol loboratory
edited by MALCOLM M. RENFREW University of Idaho idaha 83843
MOSCOW,
Safety in the Laboratory: Are We Making Any Progress? Blaine C. McKusick 1212 Bruce Rd., Carrcroft, Wilmington, DE 19603
I t has been somewhat over a decade since U S . chemists discovered that the government was going to have a strong voice in laboratory safety, and perhaps a strong arm in it too. Back in the early '70's there was increasing recognition by the public that besides providing "better things for better living", many chemicals were poisonous, sometimes in insidious or dramatic ways. This was the period when ominous words like "carcinogenicity" and "teratogenicity" were coming into common use among chemists. Widespread public concern about toxic chemicals, some of itjustified, some not, led to legislation to control them. As one result of this legislation, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) prepared regulations for the handling of toxic chemicals in the workplace. OSHA then alarmed many chemists by saying that, since the regulations applied to all work~lacesand since the laboratorv was a workpla
