For the purpose of getting information for the establishment of safety and health management of universities and other academic institutions in Japan, the actual situations of safety and health management of 12 colleges and universities in USA were investigated. Additionally, 52 Japanese researchers and students in the US colleges and universities were interviewed concerning how they feel the safety and health management of their schools in comparison to that of Japanese universities.
As a result, all of the 12 colleges and universities have established Environmental Health and Safety Office (EHS Office) in their schools, which are constituted by 36~79 staffs in the schools with more than 10,000 students and by around 20 staffs in the schools with less than 5,000 students. Additionally, every college and university has developed Web-based training for ensuring safety and health in research and education. The interview survey for the Japanese researchers and students in the US colleges and universities revealed around 80% of the responders regard that the safety and health management and education of their schools is well established as compared to that of Japanese universities.
The results of this study demonstrate that the safety and health management and education of US colleges and universities has been well established, and these findings will provide us with meaningful information for the development of the framework of safety and health management of Japanese universities and other academic institutions.
