COMPARISON OF SAFETY CULTURE IN VARIOUS SCIENTIFIC LABORATORIES OF SELECTED UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

The current study was designed to examine the perceptions of science students for actual practice of health and safety in their laboratories. This study was conducted in three departmental laboratories: 1-Agriculture, 2-Environmental Sciences, 3-Microbiology in Two universities of Pakistan. Questionnaire (Annex-1) was designed for study where sample size for each university was 240 to evaluate the safety perception on nine parameters (Annex-2) by using analytical tools: Five-point Likert Scale (FPLS) which was further associated with Parker‟s Framework. Safety culture considered as dependent variable depending on four independent parameters. Analytical work was done on SPSS by using Mean square and regression model. Responses were received from each university. The safety culture assessment response rate was 3.68992, 3.5067 of university-A and University-B respectively. The University-A average value applies from 3.50 to 3.75 on the other hand university-B all factors Average values apply from 3.40 to 3.51 which proves that the university-A mean of parameter is greater than the mean of all parameters from university-B. It is also noted that the parameter values increase as the safety culture is positive. R square shows that the safety culture of university-A and university-B is 98.0% and 98.6% respectively dependent on the remaining four parameters which were selected for this study. It is concluded by the survey of university-A in all department‟s students have positive behavior towards their safety rather than university-B. It is observed that there is a need to work on proper awareness about safety practices by the administration of university-B through arranging seminars, practical trainings and proper enforcement of Laboratory Safety rule.