Assessment of Familiarity and Understanding of Chemical Hazard Warning Signs among University Students Majoring Chemistry and Biology: A Case Study at Jimma University, Southwestern Ethiopia

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess students’ familiarity and comprehension of chemical hazard warning signs at the Departments of Chemistry and Biology, Jimma University. Data were collected from randomly selected students using structured questionnaires. The collected data were analyzed using simple quantitative analysis. The results of the study revealed that the majority (56.8%) of the respondents were not familiar with hazard signs of laboratory chemicals. The respondents were also requested to match chemicals properties with the corresponding labels (pictograms). However, only 26.5%, 14.45% and 12% of the respondents were able to correctly match “flammable”, “toxic” and “irritant”, respectively, with their associated signs. The responses given to the rest of the properties (e.g. explosive, oxidizing, corrosive, harmful and radioactive) were not encouraging. The results also indicate that understanding (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 compressibility about chemical hazard warning signs. Thus, it is recommended that warning students to follow safety rules is not sufficient and thus, they should be educated to understand and recognize the signs in order to avoid the possible happening of chemical accidents on them and the environment. Key words:Hazard warning signs % Comprehension % Laboratory chemical hazard % Laboratory safety % Hazard communication % Globally harmonized system (GHS) % Chemical labels