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Policy

Accountability And Proper Management

August 20, 2007 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 85, Issue 34

Regarding "Chemical Security Gone Awry?" I am bewildered and continue to be puzzled by the sources and arguments presented regarding chemical inventories (C&EN, June 4, page 29). As an experienced program manager with both academic and industrial backgrounds, I'm tired of hearing academia once again playing both sides of another accountability issue that with proper management could and should have been settled long ago.

Full accountability for chemical inventories is already required and should be an integral part of any institution that promotes itself as a caring community partner. These inventories are supposed to be available at the individual laboratory level and are usually managed by an academic environmental health and safety group. If these requirements were actually supported by academic administrations, full accountability of chemical inventories would be far more trivial than the article would lead us to believe.

An interesting follow-up to this article could discuss the historical number of violations for not having chemical inventories or properly managing hazardous wastes (which also require inventories and accountability). I also find it curious that the same sources cited in this article also use these kinds of requirements to justify their need for and costs of inventory software programs and personnel to manage them. Perhaps if less time were spent politicizing the debate, more efficient use of their resources could be made in academic programs of excellence.

The last time I checked, academia is supposed to prepare its personnel to work in "the real world." This preparation does not end at the classroom, but extends throughout the entire fabric of the learning experience, including administration of and compliance with regulations-all things that are expected in industry and government. It is time for those of us in academia to look beyond the ivory tower and become integrated into the realism and expectations mainstream of today's world.

David A. Bunzow
Fargo, N.D.

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