I wanted to let people know of a new web site that is available at:
http://www. universityhealthandsafety.net/

The organizers are a group of higher education health and safety professionals who are interested in sharing their observations and wisdom about the hazards associated with work in higher education settings, particularly laboratories. I've seen several items on their links list that are new to me, so it's worth checking out.

- Ralph

Ralph Stuart, CIH
Environmental Safety Manager
University of Vermont
Environmental Safety Facility
667 Spear St. Burlington, VT  05405
rstuart@uvm.edu  

40 Suggestions for a Safer Lab

Every month our flagship publication, the Journal of Chemical Education, delivers a wide range of interesting articles and activities useful in both the classroom and laboratory.

Current Issue - July 2008

The July 2008 issue is now available online. In this issue you will find articles about natural products, chromatography, environmental chemistry, our summer reading list, and many other activities for the classroom and laboratory.

The official LSI blog is a place to learn more about Lab Safety! Jim Kaufman, Christina Dillard and our guests will regularly post their thoughts on timely lab safety topics as well as comment on recent lab accidents or near misses.  We'll also post our favorite websites, lab safety success stories, updates on regulations, and lots of creative ideas to help you have a more effective lab safety program.

  Additionally, we want to hear from you! We invite you to comment on our posts and if you would like to be one of our guest authors, please email Christina at cdillard@labsafety.org .   Please visit our blog today www.blog.labsafetyinstitute.org and register to receive an email notification whenever a new post is made.

CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health just released I Initiating
Change: Creating an Asthma-Friendly School, a toolkit developed to help
advocates at the district and school levels persuade people in their
schools and communities of the importance of asthma-friendly schools.
The toolkit, http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyout h/asthma/creatingafs/ ,
includes science-based suggestions and tools for making schools more
asthma-friendly.

The 13-minute video features real-life stories of students who, thanks
to their schools; asthma-friendly policies and programs, now have their
asthma under control.

For More Information, including the following, see
http://www.cdc.gov/Features /SchoolAsthma/
- Creating an Asthma-Friendly School
- Download the toolkit
- View a podcast
- View a free webinar on using the video and toolkit to market
asthma-friendly schools

Order free copies of the video or toolkit by calling 1-800-CDC-INFO
(800-232-4636).

Download the toolkit at
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyout h/asthma/creatingafs/

EPA Region 7's "Mercury: An Educator's Toolkit"
http://www.epa.gov/region7 /mercury/educator_toolkit.htm

Includes videos, background information for educators, actions and
student activities (by grade level).

Serious gaps in existing laws regulating the production and use of hazardous chemicals fail to protect public health and the environment, according to a report by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and UCLA. As a result of this inadequate oversight, chemical and pollution-related diseases among children and workers in California cost the state's insurers, businesses and families an estimated $2.6 billion in direct and indirect costs, says the report, which includes a set of recommended policy reforms for the state.

UC Berkeley News 
(http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2 008/01/17_greenchem.shtml)

Green Chemistry: Cornerstone to a Suitable California (http://www.coeh.ucla.edu/Greenchemistry.pdf)  

E-Newsbrief of the National Clearinghouse for Worker Safety and Health
Training at http://tools.niehs.nih.gov /wetp/

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