Abstract
Occupational health and safety in laboratories are a major concern due to the high number of incidents and/or deaths occurring and rising every day. Laboratories in academic institutions are university facilities that are used to perform experiments and conduct research into investigations by students or researchers. In occupational health and safety legislation and standards for laboratories, related incidents are maintained and reduced in terms of the South African Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993 (Act No. 85 of 1993). South African academic institutions are mandatorily required to implement occupational health and safety Acts in their laboratories to protect laboratory users from occupational health- and safety-related incidents. This study is focused on identifying the causes of occupational health- and safety-related incidents in laboratories and recommending possible strategies to improve safety in the laboratories of South African academic institutions. To achieve this, a positivism philosophy was selected. Data were collected and analysed to investigate the participants’ insights into or understanding of the causes of occupational health- and safety-related incidents in the laboratories of academic institutions. A deductive approach to theory development and a mono quantitative methodology using exploratory and descriptive methods in the form of survey questionnaires were chosen to collect data from five randomly selected academic institutions out of 26 in South Africa. The Google Forms tool was used to collect the data. Based on the analysis of the results, certain factors have been found to contribute to the poor laboratory safety in academic institutions, namely institutions not being interested in training their laboratory users, ignorance to adhere to safety measures in these laboratories, negligence of the use of budgets for training, a lack of awareness of global trends in safety incidents, and lastly, a lack of government support. Based on the findings, it was concluded and recommended that safety in academic laboratories need to be taken very seriously in terms of ensuring that laboratory users are well trained and educated in occupational health and safety. Adherence to safety must be strictly implemented in these laboratories. Institutions must secure enough of their budgets to train their employees or users and for work-related resources. Government support must be sought in terms of funding these institutions and facilitating the funds to ensure that safety is implemented properly. The accreditation of the laboratories of academic institutions in occupational health and safety with Occupational Health and Safety councils must be monitored to improve global collaborations with neighbouring countries.