Responsibilities of Chemistry Professionals and their Organizations

Responsibilities of Chemistry Professionals and their Organizations

Responsibilities of Chemistry Professionals and their Organizations

Responsibilities of Chemistry Professionals

Chemistry professionals have ethical and legal responsibility to work with chemicals safely. They:

  • Protect themselves, their communities, and the wider environment from the risks associated with the hazards of chemicals
  • Address safety and health issues when contributing to the scientific literature.

Chemistry professionals need to develop competency in evaluating hazards, conducting assessments, and mitigating the risks of those hazards.

  • In this process, chemistry professionals need to work with other EH&S stakeholders when planning for particularly hazardous activities and for potential emergencies.
  • In this work, chemistry professionals need familiarity with and access to electronic sources of safety information, including technical data, broader safety literature, and literature on organizational culture.

Chemistry professionals must actively participate in their organizational culture concerning the safe practice of chemistry. They:

  • Need to understand and observe policies and procedures at their institutions
  • Must contribute to the continuous improvement of their organization’s safety programs.

Safety skills need to be included as part of the formal education of chemistry professionals.

  • Safety is not incidental to chemical education, but an essential component of how chemistry professionals work.
  • Students need to learn how to incorporate both technical and cultural safety considerations in their work.

Chemistry professionals assume a crucial role in providing chemical safety information to impacted parties.

  • This role includes providing information appropriately to support employer and professional organization communication with the general public around health and safety issues.