Effect of pre-lab information on chemical spillage on volume subsequently spilled : a randomized controlled trial, meta-analysis and comparison with improvement through repetition

Stark, Moray S. and Robertson, Stephen A. and Tsokou, Aimilia M. (2023) Effect of pre-lab information on chemical spillage on volume subsequently spilled : a randomized controlled trial, meta-analysis and comparison with improvement through repetition. ACS Chemical Health & Safety, 30 (5). pp. 333-339. ISSN 1878-0504 (https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chas.3c00054)

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Abstract

Understanding methods to improve the safe handling of hazardous chemicals is important to improve laboratory safety. In this work, a simple online resource with contextual safety information on chemical spillage was developed and provided to year 1 undergraduate students prior to undertaking a laboratory practical. The effects of this safety information on amount of chemical subsequently spilled was examined using a randomized controlled trial, with a median effect size for the reduction in spillage of 37%, in comparison with those not receiving this information (95% confidence interval: −18% to 68% reduction and p = 0.14). To improve the robustness of this finding, a pretrial protocol for this randomized controlled trial was published on an open platform in a frozen document prior to data collection commencing. The effects of this pre-experiment, nonindividualized safety information was combined, using meta-analysis methodology, with results from a previous study which provided safety information postexperiment based on spillage by individual students; the effect of contextual safety information on chemical spillage gave a median reduction in spillage of 50% (95% confidence interval of 0% to 71% reduction, and p = 0.034). Any improvement through repeating the experiment was also investigated with spillage reduced by a median of 61% (95% confidence interval of 52% to 72% reduction, and p = 0.012). These three methods for reducing chemical spillage are compared using an implementation science perspective, highlighting that for the three methods discussed there is the trade-off in that the higher the evidence of benefit, the lower the ease, and hence likelihood, of implementation.

ORCID iDs

Stark, Moray S. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2175-2055, Robertson, Stephen A. and Tsokou, Aimilia M.;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)