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Chemical risk and safety awareness, perception, and practices among research laboratories workers in Italy

INTRODUCTION: Exposure to chemical compounds occurs in numerous occupational settings, among which the research and healthcare laboratories have not been adequately investigated. These settings are characterized by an extreme variability of the used compounds and by the frequent turnover of young re...

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Autores principales: Papadopoli, Rosa, Nobile, Carmelo Giuseppe Angelo, Trovato, Alessandro, Pileggi, Claudia, Pavia, Maria
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7298783/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32550858
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12995-020-00268-x
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author Papadopoli, Rosa
Nobile, Carmelo Giuseppe Angelo
Trovato, Alessandro
Pileggi, Claudia
Pavia, Maria
author_facet Papadopoli, Rosa
Nobile, Carmelo Giuseppe Angelo
Trovato, Alessandro
Pileggi, Claudia
Pavia, Maria
author_sort Papadopoli, Rosa
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Exposure to chemical compounds occurs in numerous occupational settings, among which the research and healthcare laboratories have not been adequately investigated. These settings are characterized by an extreme variability of the used compounds and by the frequent turnover of young researchers. The main objectives of the study were to explore the occupational exposure to hazardous chemical substances among research laboratory workers; to assess their awareness and perceptions regarding chemical hazards; to investigate adherence to guidelines on safe handling of chemical compounds; and to analyze the effects of several factors on these outcomes of interest. METHODS: The survey was conducted among research laboratories workers who were exposed to chemical substances during their activity. Subjects completed a questionnaire exploring knowledge, attitudes and behaviors related to chemical hazards involved in research activities. RESULTS: Enrolled subjects were 237, for an 81.7% response rate. More than 90 hazardous chemical substances were used in the surveyed laboratories. A correct knowledge on hazardous chemicals was significantly more likely in younger researchers, in those manipulating a higher number of hazardous chemicals, and in those with a higher number of years of training in the attended laboratory; 54.4% of the workers said they felt very exposed to chemical risk. Correct practices in the laboratories were significantly more likely in researchers who perceived to have a low exposure to chemicals, but a high exposure to biological risk, who agreed with the statement that colleagues handle chemicals following safety procedures and who perceived to have received an adequate training in the management of accidents and first aid. CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed significant gaps in knowledge and scarce preparedness in the adherence to safety processes to prevent and contain risks related to use of chemical compounds in research laboratories.
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spelling pubmed-72987832020-06-17 Chemical risk and safety awareness, perception, and practices among research laboratories workers in Italy Papadopoli, Rosa Nobile, Carmelo Giuseppe Angelo Trovato, Alessandro Pileggi, Claudia Pavia, Maria J Occup Med Toxicol Research INTRODUCTION: Exposure to chemical compounds occurs in numerous occupational settings, among which the research and healthcare laboratories have not been adequately investigated. These settings are characterized by an extreme variability of the used compounds and by the frequent turnover of young researchers. The main objectives of the study were to explore the occupational exposure to hazardous chemical substances among research laboratory workers; to assess their awareness and perceptions regarding chemical hazards; to investigate adherence to guidelines on safe handling of chemical compounds; and to analyze the effects of several factors on these outcomes of interest. METHODS: The survey was conducted among research laboratories workers who were exposed to chemical substances during their activity. Subjects completed a questionnaire exploring knowledge, attitudes and behaviors related to chemical hazards involved in research activities. RESULTS: Enrolled subjects were 237, for an 81.7% response rate. More than 90 hazardous chemical substances were used in the surveyed laboratories. A correct knowledge on hazardous chemicals was significantly more likely in younger researchers, in those manipulating a higher number of hazardous chemicals, and in those with a higher number of years of training in the attended laboratory; 54.4% of the workers said they felt very exposed to chemical risk. Correct practices in the laboratories were significantly more likely in researchers who perceived to have a low exposure to chemicals, but a high exposure to biological risk, who agreed with the statement that colleagues handle chemicals following safety procedures and who perceived to have received an adequate training in the management of accidents and first aid. CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed significant gaps in knowledge and scarce preparedness in the adherence to safety processes to prevent and contain risks related to use of chemical compounds in research laboratories. BioMed Central 2020-06-16 /pmc/articles/PMC7298783/ /pubmed/32550858 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12995-020-00268-x Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Papadopoli, Rosa
Nobile, Carmelo Giuseppe Angelo
Trovato, Alessandro
Pileggi, Claudia
Pavia, Maria
Chemical risk and safety awareness, perception, and practices among research laboratories workers in Italy
title Chemical risk and safety awareness, perception, and practices among research laboratories workers in Italy
title_full Chemical risk and safety awareness, perception, and practices among research laboratories workers in Italy
title_fullStr Chemical risk and safety awareness, perception, and practices among research laboratories workers in Italy
title_full_unstemmed Chemical risk and safety awareness, perception, and practices among research laboratories workers in Italy
title_short Chemical risk and safety awareness, perception, and practices among research laboratories workers in Italy
title_sort chemical risk and safety awareness, perception, and practices among research laboratories workers in italy
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7298783/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32550858
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12995-020-00268-x
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