Abstract

The Department of Chemical & Process Engineering (JKKP) is committed and actively working to providing a safe lab environment for students and staff. Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994, it is one of the main responsibilities of the employer to protect and safeguard employees or consumers from the adverse effects of chemicals at the work place. The objective of this study was to identify the risk and evaluate the level of exposure of chemicals involved. A Chemical Health Risk Assessment (CHRA) has been conducted on chemical usage at the teaching labs with the purpose to allow decisions to be made on appropriate control measures, training of employees, monitoring and health surveillance activities that may be needed to protect the health of staff and students who may be exposed to chemicals hazardous to health. Furthermore, it is also to evaluate the sufficiency of the current control measures practiced by the staff and students of the department. The procedure was carried out by detailed and qualitative assessment, based on site visit, observation of employees during task of handling chemicals, reviewing lab work procedures and manual, as well as other related documents and records. Results showed that hazards of the chemicals were determined through information obtained from a register of chemicals list and Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). Prevention and mitigation measures by a proactive approach were taken to minimize health risks during the learning and research process.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.