The life science field has fewer laboratory safety education materials for university students than the chemical and engineering fields. Therefore, this study aimed to develop new inexpensive, and versatile laboratory safety education content for the life science field using VRChat and a head-mounted display. Here we have successfully constructed a biohazard laboratory world in a virtual space. Users can virtually walk through this world at any time and use it for free for face-to-face classes as well as for distance learning. Users can also learn the essentials of the biohazard laboratory and various related experimental equipment. In addition, users can virtually experience an autoclave explosion or a needle stick accident and a concomitant secondary mishap, an infectious disease, to improve their ability to predict the risks of various accidents related to biohazard experiments. Therefore, this biohazard experiment world is inexpensive, versatile, and useful for university students to easily enhance their experimental safety knowledge.

Chemical risk assessment in Japan is shifting from management by law and regulations to autonomous management by users of chemical substances. Universities and other institutions are no exception to this trend. University chemical laboratories have several unique characteristics. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an autonomous risk assessment method that considers university characteristics. For this purpose, it is important to show the heterogeneous concentration distribution of chemical substances on a laboratory scale and to quantify the effect of ventilation. In this study, a chemical risk assessment method was proposed for a real chemical laboratory scale, and information for the construction of an autonomous risk assessment method was collected. First, the age of air at different ventilation patterns on a laboratory scale was calculated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis, and the chemical substance stagnation point in the laboratory was identified. Then, toluene was intentionally volatilized in the laboratory, the laboratory was ventilated for a certain period, and the actual toluene concentration in the laboratory before and after ventilation was measured. The ventilation efficiency was quantitatively demonstrated by measuring its concentration in the laboratory. The results of CFD analysis and the field measurements reveal efficient ventilation patterns on a laboratory scale. The results of this analysis will be of help in the development of autonomous risk assessment methods.