Safety Awareness Education Program

The most important feature in creating a "safety culture" is education - education in laboratory and field best practices. Most of the ALERT institutions already provide this. However, researchers should be periodically re-indoctrinated about lab safety and hazards. We propose a program on laboratory safety and specifically explosive safety.

Drawing on the resources of our own ALERT researchers and those of the Department of Defense (DoD) and National Laboratories, a Safety Awareness Education Program will be created to supplement the safety education in participating institutions. At course completion, students should be able to determine whether an operation is safe or not. If not, (s)he should know what approach (s)he should take to make the operation safe.

• Basic laboratory best practices
• DoD contractor safety manuals and storage regulations
• Required testing and the meaning of test results
• Handling requirements specific to each explosive
• Historic explosive accidents for a "lessons learned"

The SRB will have input into the safety education program. It is intended that the "Explosive Safety Protocols and Procedures" course be offered every six months, and that each individual who participates in the ALERT program attends within six months of joining the program and at least every other year thereafter.

The course will be offered online and in person, with instructors visiting each institution so that researchers will have the opportunity to meet the instructors face to face. Principal Investigators at each institution will have an opportunity to supplement the instruction as appropriate for their institution.