There was a fire in the chem lab of Presidency college in Kolkatta.
There is a need for all universities and colleges to have some standardised lab infrastructure.
There should not be anything left to the college management's discretion.
How chemicals are stored, how the lab is designed, fire safety drills, etc need to be standardised. A guideline prepared and enforced as far as possible. There should be advice freely available for waste management, storage methods, safety data etc.
Faculty, lab staff and students must be made aware of MSDS and other such data.
The University should change its syllabus. The experiments prescribed for undergrads should involve as few hazardous chemicals as possible.
For example, to teach Nernst Distribution law, is it necessary to extract benzoic acid with benzene? Every student has to use large amounts of benzene. Why not teach the concept with some other solvent?
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