> >Anyone care to share what they are doing to promote green chemistry > and green science? Here at UVM, our laboratory safety coordinator began working with the Chemistry Department, particularly specific TA's, to incorporate more environmental information into the class laboratory materials, with an emphasis on proper chemical waste disposal (we routinely get feedback about "bad stuff" going down the drain, often when no "bad stuff" is used in the lab). She also brought up the issue of the energy use associated with fume hoods and the environmental impacts associated with that. Unfortunately, she has since left the University, so we will have to restart her work when her replacement is hired. Another effort she made (for her own classwork) was a survey of students in sophomore level chemistry classes of their interest in this sort of information. The results were that the students showed a significant level of interest in more of both safety and environmental information. A third effort we hope to continue is to have students in senior and grad level courses visit our hazardous waste program's facilities in order to understand where their chemical waste goes and the importance of good labeling to downstream waste handlers. Included in this tour was a green chemistry segment based on materials from the ACS and EPA joint program. Finally, I would note that there is a significant amount of green chemistry programming in the Northeast Regional Meeting of the ACS that I am helping to organize. These presentations are more research than class oriented, but include both. Let me know if you have any questions about this. - Ralph Ralph Stuart, CIH Environmental Safety Manager University of Vermont Environmental Safety Facility 667 Spear St. Burlington, VT 05405 rstuart**At_Symbol_Here**uvm.edu fax: (802)656-8682
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