Comprehension of Chemical Laboratory Safety and Hazard Warning Signs Among Chemistry and Biology Department Students in Wolaita Sodo University, Southern Ethiopia

Chemical accidents mostly occur due to the neglect of safety precautions or the absence of related precautionary symbols on the chemicals. The present study was aimed to assess students’ comprehensibility of chemical laboratory safety and hazard warning signs among biology and chemistry department students in the Wolaita Sodo University during January to May, 2016. The total population of this study was 500 students. Sample size was determined by purposive sampling. Among the total population 72 respondents were selected to responds the questionnaire. Data were collected using structured questionnaires and observation. The collected data were analyzed using simple quantitative analysis. The results of the study revealed that the majority (75 % and 61.11%) of the respondents were well aware with chemical laboratory safety and hazard signs of laboratory chemicals, respectively. However, the majority of the respondents (61.11% and 56.94%) were low familiarity with chemical laboratory safety and hazard signs of laboratory chemicals, respectively. Also the respondents were requested to match chemical characteristics with the corresponding hazard signs (pictograms). Only 23.61%, 15.28% and 11.1% of the respondents were able to match chemical hazard warning signs of flammable, explosive and harmful, respectively with their associated signs. The responses given to the rest of properties (oxidizing, dangerous to the environment, corrosive, radioactive, chronic health hazards and toxic) were not as such significant. The results also indicate that comprehensibility of hazard warning signs is low among the students. This necessitates organization of education / training programs to help students to get familiarized and increase their comprehensibility about chemical laboratory safety and hazard warning signs. Thus, it is recommended that warning students to follow safety rules is not sufficient and they should be educated to understand and recognize the signs in order to avoid the possible happening of chemical accidents on them and their environment. Keywords: Laboratory safety, Hazard warning signs, Chemical labels, chemical acciden