First Aid in the Laboratory: Chemical Spillages
Safety rules for laboratory staff.
This training video was produced by the University of London Audio-Visual Centre (ULAVC), which made more than 1,000 teaching programmes on video, film and tape-slide. Their programmes were relatively low budget ventures - and in this case conveying the safety message was clearly a higher priority than any sophisticated production values.
After some brief establishing shots of a university laboratory, the narrator rapidly gets to the point, asking 'just what should be your priorities in the event of an accident like this in your laboratory?' In most cases the answer is surprisingly simple and involves washing with plenty of water - and sometimes soap too - as soon as possible. This reassuringly (or alarmingly?) basic approach is even applied to radioactive materials - 'Don't be frightened by radioactive materials - the same applies: lots of water, as quickly as possible', says Dr Tom Kelly, though he does add that it is then vital to take the casualty to hospital to be decontaminated.
The video features the students and staff of the Department of Chemistry, Birkbeck College, University of London. Many universities had their own audio-visual production centres, making teaching programmes on film and video, and the University of London was one of the last universities to establish theirs, which was set up in 1968 and closed in 1991. It specialised in medical videos, which reportedly reflected a perception of the more advanced level of media skills across the lecturers in this area compared with other academic departments.
Trevor A. Scott, the director of this programme, was one of the most prolific makers of videos for ULAVC.
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Health & Safety at Work
Work can be a matter of life and death. Explore how video helped spread the gospel of ‘Elf’n’Safety’ and improved Britain’s workplaces
As employers and government grew gradually but increasingly conscious of responsibilities towards the wellbeing of staff at work, so grew the role of film in the workplace. The moving image, with its emotional power and its ability to stick in the memory (especially when resorting to graphic imagery), was well placed to help get key health and safety messaging across both to employees, exhorted to follow safe practices, and to employers and managers encouraged to make conditions as safe as possible (or at least, as safe as the law requires of them).
And when things go wrong, the filmmaker may be there to help pick up the pieces, documenting or dramatising the consequences. In the era of videotape cameras and videotape viewing, late in the 20th century, the role of film in ‘Elf’n’Safety’ only grew bigger. This collection explores how it did it
16 videos in this collection
1
2
Disability Discrimination Act: Act Now
3
Handle with Care
4
First Aid in the Laboratory: Chemical Spillages
5
Make Health Your Business
6
Health and Safety at Work for Enfield
7
Safety's No Accident
8
Illegal Manriding
9
The Self Rescuer
10
Contraband Kills
11
Fighting the Odds
12
Fire Service Demonstrate House Fire
13
Pointers To Good Safety Management: Caring Occupations
14
Pointers To Good Safety Management: Equestrian Work
15
Pointers To Good Safety Management: In a Garage
16