From Survey to Action: Using Laboratory Safety Perceptions to Guide Academic Research Safety Improvements

Academic research laboratories often exhibit gaps between formal safety policies and everyday practices, driven by variability in training, leadership engagement, and safety practices. Effective safety therefore depends not only on formal compliance programs but also on operational factors such as training quality, SOP use, audit practices, and reporting culture. This study examines how operational factors within a large research-intensive university, including laboratory role, access to and adequacy of safety training, use of standard operating procedures (SOPs), experience with audits, near-miss reporting practices, and laboratory workers’ perceptions of risk and safety culture, are related to one another. A cross-sectional anonymous survey was administered to 1340 individuals, of whom 245 self-identified as currently working in research laboratories. Categorical data were analyzed using likelihood ratio chi-square tests with false discovery rate adjustments. Respondents reported high overall use of SOP use (85%), but staff indicated significantly lower SOP use than graduate students (69% vs. 91%, p = 0.004), and staff were more likely than faculty to view audits as helpful (97% vs. 85%, p = 0.050). Only 68% of laboratories reported documenting near misses, and 25% of respondents reported difficulty locating required training, despite 88% of training users rating it as sufficient once accessed. Although 52% of respondents classified their laboratory as moderate or high risk, 96% nonetheless described their laboratory as safe, suggesting normalization of risk based on self-reported perceptions. No significant associations were observed between perceived laboratory safety and years of experience, hours worked in the laboratory, or extent of training completed. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of not only accessible training and consistent procedures but also institutional conditions that support reporting, learning, and shared responsibility for hazard mitigation in academic research laboratories.