Proceedings of the 2014 University of California Center for Laboratory Safety Workshop

The goal of the University of California Center for Laboratory Safety (UCCLS) 2014 Workshop was to bring together researchers and Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S) professionals to facilitate multi-disciplinary discussions on laboratory safety in academic institutions. Moreover, the workshop aimed to generate research ideas and proposals on laboratory safety with the long-term goal of developing evidence-based safety programs. The workshop was attended by 82 individuals from 3 national laboratories, and 26 universities and colleges across the country, Mexico and The Netherlands. Forty-nine percent of the attendees were researchers including professors, lab managers and graduate students. EH&S professionals made up 47% and included directors and safety officers. Several presentations on laboratory safety were given including talks by three researchers who had received seed grant funding following the 2012 UCCLS Laboratory Safety Workshop. Work group sessions developed research ideas on three topics to improve the lab safety culture in academic institutions and optimize compliance with lab safety regulations; (1) Impact of Regulations and Policies on Lab Safety; (2) Carrots versus Sticks: Impact on Compliance and Safety; and (3) Impact of Beliefs and Attitudes on Safety. Based on an exit survey, 95% of the participants rated the workshop as overall productive or very productive, and 86% generated potential research ideas on laboratory safety. An added benefit of the workshop was that 76% of the participants changed their perception on laboratory safety and 86% collected ideas for overcoming barriers to improving research safety in their home institution or lab. Following the workshop, a Request for Proposals was sent to all meeting participants to support research projects in laboratory safety.