A collection of templates and checklists to help in establishing chemical safety routines in a school.
Why Routines?
A school is legally required to document how it works with chemical safety. As part of this documentation, a written set of routines is needed.
Establishing routines may require a change of mindset and culture in the organization. However, when the routines are an integrated part of the work culture, they facilitate work by describing how things should be done to ensure chemical safety for both staff and students. Furthermore, they make it easy to train new employees in the school’s chemical safety practices.
New to Chemical Safety Work?
If your school has not previously had a systematic approach to chemical safety, the list of routines may seem overwhelming and perhaps unfamiliar. Do not try to do everything at once. Make a list of priorities, and a realistic work plan. Start with establishing the routines that you feel are the most important for improving chemical safety for staff and students, or with the routines that you can fairly easily establish with the currently available resources.
Example 1: You may decide that the most critical topic to start with is a good routine for risk assessing all practical work in the lab. When this routine is established and the risk assessments are completed, you can move to the next routine.
Example 2: You may decide to start with establishing a routine for waste management and practice by getting rid of old and unused chemicals. This will save time and work later, because there will be fewer chemicals to handle.
Set of Routines With Templates and Checklists
The school must have routines in place for regular inspection and maintenance of the facilities and equipment such as fume cupboards, emergency equipment and stored chemicals.
For all practical work that includes hazardous chemicals or hazardous equipment, the teacher or a laboratory technician is required to do a risk assessment.
Further reading: Risk Assessment
Chemicals in the science classroom must be labelled in accordance to EU regulations. If you make your own solutions, they should also be labelled to allow identification and proper handling.
Further reading: Labelling
Some chemicals require special storage conditions, and some chemicals should not be stored together.
- Template: Routines for storage (Word)
- Checklist for inspecting stored chemicals and solutions (Word)
- Checklist for monitoring use of chemicals (Word)
Further reading: Storage
The school is legally required to maintain an updated chemical inventory – a collection of safety data sheets for all chemicals and solutions used.
All schools are legally required to dispose of chemicals in accordance to regulations and in a way that ensures proper waste management.
- Yes
Does your waste contain organic substance?
- Yes
Is your waste halogenated?
- Yes
Container: All halogenated organic substances and waste from halogenation reactions of organic substances
- No
Container: Non-halogenated organic substances
- Yes
- No
Does your waste contain toxic inorganic salts?
- Yes
Container: Solutions of toxic inorganic salts
- No
Is your waste acidic?
- Yes
Container: Acidic solutions
- No
Is your waste alkaline?
- Yes
Container: Alkaline solutions
- No
Please start over
- Yes
- Yes
- Yes
- Yes
- No
Is your waste a laboratory waste?
- Yes
Is your waste heavily contaminated?
- Yes
Is your waste pointed and/or sharp?
- Yes
Container: pointed and/or sharp contaminated solid waste
- No
Container: Other contaminated solid waste
- Yes
- No
Is your waste a glass not defined as recyclable?
- Yes
Container: Uncontaminated laboratory glass
- No
Recycle in non laboratory bins
- Yes
- Yes
- No
Recycle in non laboratory bins
- Yes
Further reading: Waste Management
Unfortunately, accidents happen. When they do, there should be routines in place for how accidents are handled.
Everyone who works with hazardous chemicals is legally required to have proper training and information.