Evaluation of the environment, health and safety (EH&S) state of laboratories at the Environmental Health Department, School of Public Health, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, 2015

Integrated environment, health and safety (EH&S) Management System uses a new and systematic approach to explain the interaction between health, safety, and the environment. It is a useful tool for addressing defects, risks, and accidents and for providing a prevention-based system. The aim of this study was to establish a suitable procedure to evaluate the EH&S conditions of environmental health laboratories, and a case study of the Environmental Health Laboratories of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences was conducted in 2015. In this study, an evaluation proposal was derived using standard checklists from OSHA and the University of Colorado (including EH&S and legal resources and Iranian standards). Based on these standards and recommendations, a final protocol was prepared and was used by the Department of Environmental Health Laboratories, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran, 2015. The study sample included 28 undergraduate and graduate students of engineering and environmental health and three persons with laboratory expertise. These people were working in the chemistry, microbiology, reference labs, and the pilot room. The results of the study showed that a prepared checklist could be a useful tool to assess the EH&S conditions of environmental laboratories. Categorizing the results for further corrective acts provided an opportunity to plan a future approach and to prevent undesired accidents and health hazards. Evaluation of the studied cases showed that the chemistry, microbiology, and reference labs had poor environmental conditions. The health status of the chemistry, reference, and microbiology laboratories as well as the pilot room was poor. The microbiology laboratory had an optimal safety status; the chemistry and reference laboratories, a moderate safety status; and the pilot room, an undesirable safety status. Finally, the lack of an integrated EH&S policy was the major defect observed at the laboratories, and the efficacy of the derived protocol for evaluating the EH&S conditions of the laboratories was well documented.