The UC Center for Laboratory Safety has been created to improve the practice of laboratory safety through the performance of scientific research and implementation of best safety practices in the laboratory. The Center will operate under the oversight of the UC Center for Laboratory Safety Advisory Board with technical support from the UCLA Office of Environment, Health and Safety and the UCLA School of Public Health – Department of Environmental Health Sciences.
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The international Laboratory Safety Culture Survey will gather data on researchers’ safety practices and attitudes; information to provide guidance for future safety policies and procedures
The University of California Center for Laboratory Safety, BioRAFT, and Nature Publishing Group have joined forces to launch an international survey to identify issues impacting laboratory safety. The survey invites tens of thousands of researchers to anonymously answer questions about lab safety practices and attitudes. The results will provide information needed to design policies and lab safety programs that protect researchers from harm without unduly impacting their work, that reduce institutional risk, and that can be used to develop software solutions that ease compliance oversight and management.
Laboratory safety practices are coming under increased scrutiny following several accidents that have resulted in injuries or death. Many institutions implement or alter policies with the intent of improving laboratory safety, but without independent evidence and an understanding of existing culture, they cannot ensure that they are achieving the desired results. This survey is the first step to gather data required to study these issues more closely, and to better understand the reality of modern-day lab safety from the perspective of the researcher.
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