Abstract:

The Teaching Laboratory Unit (ULD) is responsible for providing the equipments and laboratories and for managing the laboratory waste of the practical classes at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences from the Universitat de Barcelona (UB). In the Pharmacy degree, lectures and practicals are integrated and practical classes are designed to complement lectures and students acquire the necessary practical and method skills in the ULD. To date, different initiatives have been implemented to improve the student’s transversal knowledge and skills related to the laboratory such as Quality, Health, Safety, Security and Environment. For instance, all the labs have posters with a flow chart of Laboratory Solid Waste Disposal Procedures. However, different indicators of our Quality System showed us that the disposal of solid waste sometimes was not properly followed, thus, increasing the cost of disposal. For these reasons, we have created a free App: Residus ULD-UB for Android and IOS, available at Google Play and App Store, containing a summary of the correct disposal procedure for the chemicals used in the laboratory for each course. Firstly, a database was created considering all the chemicals used in all the subjects of the degree including general laboratory material such as gloves, bench-top paper, glassware or plasticware distinguishing if they were potentially contaminated or not. After revising the correct waste container by the Safety, Health and Environment Office (OSSMA) from the UB the App was created by the Audiovisual Unit from the UB. It is an easy way for students and teachers to know the correct container to dispose of the chemicals and other laboratory material, prevent potential hazards to people and the impact on the environment and reduce the cost of laboratory waste disposal.

Acknowledgements:
To the ULD staff and to RIMDA-UB 2014PID-UB/049

Keywords:

Chemical waste, practical classes, QHSE, App.