All of Ewha’s laboratories received higher than safety Level III, on a scale from Level I to V, according to the results of a safety inspection released on Sept. 11.
One hundred and nineteen labs out of 507 received Level I, 305 labs received Level II and 83 labs received Level III. In total, Ewha’s average lab safety level was Level II.
Level I stands for the best state and implies no significant problems found, and safety is maintained at a stable state. Level II implies trivial problems found and a need for repair but no safety issues. Level III implies trivial problems found, more than Level II, with a need to be repaired and reinforced.
At Level IV, laboratories have severe defects and need to be repaired immediately. Level V is the worst state, implying the defects are critical and that the facilities should stop being used immediately and be repaired.
Lab safety inspection has been conducted regularly every other year since 2008. This year, the inspection was conducted by Dongyang TPT from May 14 to June 10.
Compared to the previous inspection, the number of Ewha’s labs that received safety Level I increased 30 percent and Level II and III decreased.
“Due to recent lab accidents at universities, the national government is currently applying stricter rules and more segmented inspection items,” said Hwang Je-gyu, an official in the Office of General Administration. “So some labs previously assessed as upper level have now received lower levels.”
 According to the results, Ewha’s labs had some minor problems. Among these problems were chemical safety issues, which covered 33 percent of all the problems, fire safety issues with 18 percent, and industrial sanitation and electric safety issues with 14 percent. Problems such as general safety issues, as well as gas, machinery and living organism safety issues were also noted.
Ewha is making efforts to manage the laboratories in safer ways by resolving the previous problems.
“We are currently inspecting laboratories daily, monthly, and at other regular times,” Hwang said. “However, I think precaution is the most important thing to prevent accidents, so we regularly instruct students on safety regulations and awareness.”
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