Objective The use of dangerous chemicals among school laboratories in Shanghai education system was investigated to provide evidence and orientation for further strengthening the safety management of hazardous chemicals in school laboratories.
Methods The data of 643 school laboratories in the Shanghai Registration System for Organization Using Hazardous Chemicals was analyzed, including basic information of schools and the information of the hazardous chemicals.
Results These school laboratories of Shanghai education system are mainly located in Pudong New Area and outside Outer-ring. A total of 388 kinds of dangerous chemicals were used, involving extremely toxic chemicals, high toxic substances, precursor chemicals, explosive precursor chemicals, and key-supervised chemicals. The most common category was explosive precursor chemicals (33 chemicals) and the annually maximum amount of used chemicals was precursor chemicals (24.6 tons). According to the classification of dangerous goods, the flammable liquid(category 3) was the most category involving 58 chemicals and the annual amounts was 31.3 tons. From the perspective of hazardous waste, these school laboratories produced annually 61 categories of waste organic solvents and/or organic solvent-containing wastes, 17 categories of waste acid, 12 categories of waste alkalis, 9 categories of phenol-containing wastes, 10 categories of organic halide wastes, and 145 categories of other wastes.
Conclusion The location of 643 school laboratories in Shanghai education system was relatively scattered. The used dangerous chemicals involved various categories. There was a significant variance of used amounts for each chemical. Such information provides orientation for the targeted implementation of laboratory safety management in the future. The targeted management measures can be developed according to the characteristics of the dangerous chemicals actually used in each laboratory.
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