Chemical Safety and Security Education in ACS-Approved Chemistry Programs

Journal Article · Thu Feb 06 23:00:00 EST 2020 · Journal of Chemical Education

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.9b00913· OSTI ID:1601438

Thompson, Chalita Equilla ^[1]; Nelson, Andrew Wyatt ^[2]; Gribble, Lisa Astuto ^[2]; Caskey, Susan A. ^[2]; Eitrheim, Eric Steven ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, OK (United States)
2. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

To date, chemical security education practices in postsecondary institutions are poorly understood. The purpose of this study is to provide an initial understanding of the practices, attitudes, and barriers toward chemical security education for undergraduate and graduate programs in the United States (US) by surveying representatives of American Chemical Society (ACS)-approved programs. All programs with ACS-approved undergraduate chemistry programs (n = 691) were contacted for participation: 21% (n = 148) fully completed and 6% (n = 41) partially completed the survey for a combined total of 27% complete and/or partially complete surveys (n = 189). We observed that most programs currently teach chemical safety (undergraduate >99%, graduate 73%); however, only about one-third of programs teach chemical security at any education level (undergraduate 32%, graduate 34%). We also observed that safety education is provided more frequently than security education. Further, ACS-approved programs reported that their chemical safety culture was stronger than chemical security culture and felt that safety should be taught differently than security. The overwhelming majority of respondents (96%) indicated that chemical safety should be mandatory at some level, while only about half of respondents (57%) indicated that chemical security should be mandatory at some level. More efforts are needed by the chemistry community to raise awareness of the importance of chemical security education so that more institutions commit to training their faculty and students on the topic. The authors suggest that adoption of chemical security education could be increased if ACS were to advocate for chemical security by including it in its guidelines for educational program approval.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 1601438
• Report Number(s): SAND--2019-11714J; 679888
• Journal Information: Journal of Chemical Education, Journal Name: Journal of Chemical Education Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 97; ISSN 0021-9584
• Publisher: American Chemical Society
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
Analytical Chemistry
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Problem Solving/Decision Making
Professional Development
Upper-Division Undergraduate