No policy on safety in school labs in Telangana
14 children of an ICSE school were hospitalised after an ammonia leak
Hyderabad: The education department of Telangana has no policy to ensure safety in the laboratories of educational institutions. Other than insisting on an NoC from the fire department for educational institutions the education department has no safety guidelines for the laboratories of schools, junior colleges or institutions of higher education. The concerned departments do not even inspect laboratories.
When a senior official of the school education department was asked about this he said, “Schools have laboratories for conducting demonstrative experiments by teachers. Students do not conduct any experiments. So there is no need for safety guidelines for school labs.”
Surprisingly, the official was not even aware of the Tolichowki incident. Lack of inspections of laboratories and negligence of safety measures are a problem in CBSE and ICSE schools too.
In a recent incident 14 children of an ICSE school in Tolichowki were admitted to hospital after four of them fell unconscious due to ammonia leakage in the school’s laboratory.
The same is the situation in junior colleges as they are located in cramped buildings increasing the risk of students getting affected if there is leakage of poisonous gases.
The Board of Intermediate Education does not think there is a need for safety guidelines or inspection in laboratories, especially the chemistry labs in junior colleges.
A senior Board of Intermediate Education official said, “Without fire NoC no junior college is given affiliation. As the fire NoC covers the entire college building there is no need for separate safety guidelines for laboratories.”
Some of the safety measures ignored by educational institutions are improper storage of dangerous chemicals, lack of exhaust fans, not using goggles and gloves, narrow entry/exits, lack of fire extinguishers and non-availability of first aid kits for use in case of an accident.