Pictogramas do GHS e sua aplicação como ferramenta de comunicação de perigos para estudantes de graduação

• Autor(a) principal: Uema,Leila K.
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Outros Autores: Ribeiro,Marcela G.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Química Nova (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0100-40422017000300353
• topic: hazard communication; GHS, pictograms; undergraduate students

Regularly, teaching laboratories use chemicals hazardous to health. Students must be aware of such hazards, to safely perform didactic experiments. The Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) is a hazard communication tool designed to harmonize the classification with a standardized labeling system worldwide. This work aimed at investigating whether undergraduate students correctly identify the hazards associated with a series of chemicals handled during practical laboratory classes. A questionnaire was administered to the students using the hazard classification established by the GHS as reference. They had to match each chemical with one or more pictograms and hazard classes. Statistical tests were performed to correlate the association between right answers and background items, such as having contact with chemicals during earlier classes, having contact with chemical labels at work or having received training courses in hazard communication. The overall assessment showed that students do not recognize GHS pictograms, especially those representing health hazards and thus, they were not aware of the hazards they were exposed to. Many are the reasons for that. At last, strategies to embed health and safety practices into formal education are needed to strengthen the prevention culture in such a learning environment.