SECTIONS 49340-49341 - California Statutes

EDUCATION CODE

SECTION 49340-49341

49340. This article shall be known and may be cited as the
California Hazardous Materials Education Act of 1982.

49341. The Legislature hereby finds and declares as follows:
(a) Because school science laboratories pose a potentially serious
threat to the health and safety of school pupils and school
personnel due to the use and storage of hazardous materials in these
laboratories, educational efforts are needed to increase the
awareness of persons dealing with these materials in these settings
so that possible losses of life, injuries, losses of property, and
social disruption, which could result from the improper and unsafe
use of hazardous materials, will be minimized.
(b) Effective safety in school laboratories requires informed
judgment, decisionmaking, and operating procedures by those
responsible for laboratory and related instruction. It is desirable
that each high school and junior high, middle, or elementary school
offering laboratory work have a trained member of the professional
staff who is designated as the building laboratory consultant and who
is responsible for the review, updating, and carrying out of the
school's adopted procedures for laboratory safety.
(c) Efforts by state and local agencies to implement training
programs designed to provide qualified individuals with the necessary
information, organizational skills, and materials to assist schools
and teachers in the development of their laboratory safety policies
and procedures are nonexistent or inadequate, and it is necessary
that this situation be remedied. The state should assume leadership
through the policy and guidance of the State Department of Education
in the development, support, and implementation of a statewide
training program.
(d) The Legislature requests that the State Department of
Education consider making this program a part of the department's
energy and environmental education program that is conducted pursuant
to Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 8700) of Part 6.