141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

279755
Safety culture—the backstory

Wednesday, November 6, 2013 : 8:30 AM - 8:42 AM

Peter Reinhardt , Office of Environmental Heatlh and Safety, Yale University, New Haven, CT
We all want to improve safety culture, but how? There are other questions we need to answer first: What is safety culture? How is it related to compliance? Where does it fit among all the other things we do to create a safe campus? How important is safety culture? Can we influence attitudes? How do we raise awareness? Top down? Or bottom up? If a student or faculty member asked how they can improve campus safety culture, what would you tell them? This presentation explores these questions, what science says about students and behavior, and limitations present even in strong safety cultures. The presenter will propose some answers, a simple way to raise people's awareness, steps individuals can take to grow campus safety culture, and tools you'll need to make it happen.

Learning Areas:
Advocacy for health and health education
Communication and informatics
Diversity and culture
Occupational health and safety

Learning Objectives:
Define Safety Culture. Examine its importance in promoting safety in university. Describe how to influence attitudes towards safety and to raise awareness. This presentation will explore the questions above as well as what science says about students and behavior, and limitations present even in strong safety cultures.

Keywords: Culture, Safety in Labs

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Peter A. Reinhardt is Yale University’s Director of Environmental Health and Safety. Prior to moving to Yale in 2007, he was the EHS Director at the Univ. of North Carolina for 6 yrs, and worked for 21 yrs at the Univ. of Wisconsin, last serving as their Asst. Director for Chemical & Environmental Safety. He has a BS in Biochemistry and an MA in Public Policy.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.