URMIA 47th Annual Conference

In their Guide to Implementing a Safety Culture in Our Universities, the Task Force on Laboratory Safety called on the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and the Association of American Universities (AAU) to ask the presidents and chancellors of all academic institutions to renew their commitment to improve the safety culture for all academic research, scholarship, and teaching. The Task Force, convened by APLU’s Council on Research, and in coordination with AAU, the American Chemical Society, and Council on Governmental Relations (COGR), provided 20 recommendations drawn from reports from the National Academies, ACS, OSHA, and the US Chemical Safety and Hazards Board. The Guide also has a toolkit for strengthening a culture of safety. We will share highlights from this guide, and then introduce a panel of risk managers to share their universities’ efforts in strengthening a culture of safety.