Near Miss and Incident Reporting in a Post-Secondary Institution’s Academic Laboratories

• Author / Creator

  Hodgson, Greg

• Incidents and near-misses are common to every workplace and academic laboratories are not exempt. Many academic laboratories conduct high-risk work including working with hazardous materials or dangerous equipment. It is common to hear in an academic laboratory that incidents go unreported, but the question remains if this is truly is the case. This paper examines the near misses and incidents that occur at a large Canadian post-secondary institution with a focus on academic labs with high-risk activities. It explores the number and types of incidents that occur in lab-heavy faculties including science, engineering, and medical disciplines. This paper concludes that although it cannot be conclusively stated that near-misses and incidents are under-reported in academic laboratories, this study provides evidence in support of that hypothesis. In addition, it concludes that there is room for improved near miss and incident reporting.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • near miss
  • incident
  • laboratory

• Graduation date

  Fall 2022

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-gw81-3545

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Library with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.