Australia's Science Forum

Hi All,
Is anyone using this website to do their risk assessments? I would like to hear any opinions about it- ease of use etc. It has been set up by Dr Phillip Crisp. My school is going to subsribe to it, but I'm not convinced it is any better than the system we use now, which is paper and pen and storage of masses of forms. How long do we have to keep these forms? and will keeping them electronically be legal?
Lyn

Hi Lyn
There was a discussion about this in the Ecosolve conference thread .
I'll put a comment in it so it will go to the top of the list.

Lorrae

Hi Lyn,
We have been using the eco solve RAs since beginning of 3rd term. We find it easy to use,we had nothing in place before. It can all be stored electronically and is legal, I also have hard copies which I give the teachers, and they sign,then I file it, they are valid for 15 months. I sign electronically, and if the teachers emails it they can sign electronically. I use it for all orders, even it they only want a ruler & stopwatch, to get the teachers in the habit of them. We have had resistance by 1 teacher, but we (my HOD and me)are winning, and getting the message out that they must be done. Not all things are in the data base, then others just need an alternative word, like masses instead of weights, and sometimes I have to check my spelling.if you find there is something not in the data base, let eco solve know and they will try to add them. We are really impressed with it, and think it is worth the money spent.
hope this has helped
cheers
Lisa

Hi Lisa,
I have been using Riskassess for about a month so I'm not up with all the features. I noticed you said you store them electronically. How??

Lorrae

Hi Lorrae,
I opened a new folder on my docs, and store them there, I am hoping that I will only need to change the date and reprint them as we need them next year.
cheers Lisa

Sorry Lisa,
I'm probably being really dumb but I couldn't find an option to save once I generated the RA. Was there some way to do this?? I did email a copy to myself and I could then save that. Is this what you do??

Lorrae

I have a little icon in the top right side of the screen I think there are 3 different ones and the middle one(I think) is a save icon, I click on that, but I had probs saving it too in the beginning. What if you print to PDF and save that way. click file, then save, when it comes up with the printer, go to pdf and save.
I am looking on this computer (I am not at Lakes today), and there is no pdf option on this one, maybe you could ask your IT person if you cant find an easy way to save.
hope this has helped
Lisa

Hi Lisa
thanks for the info.
I managed to save it as a webpage and also a text file. The text file was barely readable but I'm a bit inept when it comes to computers so I'll have to get some advice about the best way to do this.

Lorrae

Hi,
I am confused! I mentioned the risk assessment program to my Head Science teacher(he has been here for a year) and he said he didn't think we needed to do any risk assessments.
Does anyone know where there is some documentation within the DET that says we either do or don't have to do them.
Estelle

Yes some where in the CSIS, if you follow the guide lines in the CSIS, then DET schools do not have to do RA's, How ever with a National Curriculum due out in 2011, this could all change.

So let me see if I got this right... if you follw the guidelines of CSIS then you do not have to do risk assessments???

Thanks for that info about the RA's.
If anyone uses chemistry contexts 1 & 2 from Pearson,then in the teacher resource section if you have a password from the company, there is a complete set of Risk Assessments for every prac that the senior classes do on the site. It also has a technician list and recipes for all the chemicals needed. Very handy documents.
Estelle

Last week I attended an OHS in Secondary Science Labs course at the AIS.

I had only ever been completing risk assessments when we used chemicals outside the CSIS guidelines, and it seems many of the chemtalkers out there do the same. However we were advised a risk assessment must be completed for every practical. If there is an accident, Workcover will want to see all the paperwork and if it's not done we could be liable along with any staff involved.

We'll be buying Phillip Crisp's riskassess and will trial it for 2009.

Yes you are so correct. WE DET schools, do not have banned chemcials, but if your teachers do use chemicals they are NOT meant too, then RA need to be done. So much easier to stick to the CSIS.

So true about Risk assessment ... I had an accident last year with a chemical - the teacher concerned had no done a risk assessment. Not only that she had taken the chemicals herself, i had no idea what prac she did with them, and found an u nlabelled beaker with black powder in it. Long story but I ended up with this powder all over me, in my eyes [despite having safety glasses on]all over my face, my hair, down my shirt.... what was the FIRST thing OH&S and workcover asked for? Risk Assessment!

my teachers have not (as of yet), looked at doing RA. So with the help of lisa I have subscribed to the website, shown our head teacher and he thinks it will be great. So starting next year or sooner I will make it an issue to sign off with every prac. The teachers excuse is that they glance at the mini RA that some of the text books have with the pracs. But I don't think that,that method is really sinking in the dangers.
great site thanks for sharing!
Trish.

Same here one accident and it was the first thing workcover asked for...as well as a buffer for insurance and lawsuits ....if its a prac. used for the first time we do a R.A on it. This is filed away and next time that experiment is done by the same teacher or another one they look over the document sign off on it and make sure that thay have all the safeguards in place. By the first person doing it and storing the paperwork we then only have to do it once which saves a lot of hassle...be warned its not pretty if a kid gets hurt and the teacher has not done the paperwork...the buck stops there...

Hi Estelle
Sue is right
If you are a govement school CSIS have done the RA for you and as a lab assistant it is not your job to to the RA it is the teachers or HT job
Noona

estelle wrote:Hi,
I am confused! I mentioned the risk assessment program to my Head Science teacher(he has been here for a year) and he said he didn't think we needed to do any risk assessments.
Does anyone know where there is some documentation within the DET that says we either do or don't have to do them.
Estelle