This paper will examine what happens when a member of the chemistry faculty in a large department believes that an introduction to the topics of Green Chemistry, Lab Safety and Ethics in Science in the undergraduate chemistry major curriculum is not only a “moral imperative” (cf., Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Practical Reason and The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals), but that these three topics are inexorably coupled. It will describe the process by which the author extended the concept of “prudent practice,” which has traditionally brought to mind the image of safety in the chemistry laboratory, to include the contexts of ethics and Green Chemistry. (E.g., the process by which introducing these three topics into the chemistry major curriculum is what "a reasonably prudent member of our community would do when exercising good judgment or common sense.") In some departments, one or more of these topics could be incorporated into one’s own content course, or by adding a new course to the curriculum. In the author’s department, where no-one “owns” a particular content course and the curriculum is already overburdened, the author was able to introduce these concepts into a one-credit sophomore seminar course for chemistry majors that linked Green Chemistry to safe practice and ethical practice. For the first time in the four decades the author has been a member of his department, a one-credit seminar course in his department had a required textbook. Laboratory Safety for Chemistry Students by Hill and Finster.

Academic lab safety at the intersection between green chemistry, ethics, and safety

2019 Fall National Meeting

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