John McNeely and Bin Yang represented Environmental Health and Safety at the recent ExxonMobil’s PALS (Partners in Academic Laboratory Safety) workshop for 2023.  

The mission of PALS is to address the gap between industry and academia in awareness and training regarding individual safety responsibility, and to promote, communicate, and integrate best practices in safety management from both the academic and corporate partners. Activities included ExxonMobil laboratory tours at the Spring TX campus and Baytown TX campus, to highlight different aspects of laboratory safety, including safety systems, engineering controls, and safety culture. 

The participating universities gave presentations on their various laboratory safety programs to foster a conversation on trends and improvement opportunities. Bin and John partnered with the UH Chemical Engineering Student Safety Team (ChESST) to present safety program components and efforts of the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering. In addition, an in-depth discussion on the proposed Joint Safety Certificate program was conducted. This program aims at providing university students with safety knowledge and practicing experiences in an academic setting. 

Representatives from Texas A&M University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Florida, Georgia Tech, and Washington University in St. Louis also participated.