actually...

It turns out (thank goodness) we do not need to test the fume hoods. (But we are supposed to note if the hoods have been tested, and there is nowhere that I can find that the testers record the date of testing and status of the hood).

And we may get a student worker in future months to test the emergency showers. (And yes, I asked: they do need to be TESTED in the sense of being turned on. Turns out the student workers the university had before never bothered to do that.). We still have to do it this month because student worker schedules are up in the air. And we may have to continue to do it if our student workers flake out or quit, which sometimes happens here.

And the eyewash stations are not a big deal. But the whole "do a monthly inspection and report" thing kind of irks me...just because there are so many other things we're being asked to do. Yeah, yeah, it takes 15 minutes, but still...it takes 15 minutes. And my having to remember to do it probably pushes something else out of my mind. I hope it's just one of the random "Simpsons" lines I have stuffed in there, and not something important, like how to tell if a mushroom is poisonous or not.

I know all of this is done to ensure stuff is safe for the students. But when I'm having to bust people EVERY SINGLE STINKING WEEK because they want to bring food and drink into the lab - after I've explained, and explained, and explained how it's dangerous and how we could get in big trouble and all that - I'm less willing to inadvertently subject myself to a wet t-shirt contest testing showers and eyewashes and things. Oh, and I'm also frustrated by the students' lack of compliance with the safety-goggle regulations: they forget to bring them, they take them off in the middle of class. I don't like playing cop and I don't like that I have the reputation as a mother hen (because I'm always after them to put on their stinking goggles).

I think this is the semester I start throwing people out of class, instead of just pleading with them to leave their cokes outside and put the damn goggles on. Because being nice and pleading aren't working, and if I'm going to be the Safety Nanny, then by gosh, I'll be the Safety Nanny. Only I'll be more Nurse Ratched than Mary Poppins. about it.