i can see it, i can see it now!

I can see it, I can see it now! I once saw a really funny movie called ``The Hallelujah Trail.'' As I remember it, there was a char- acter by the name of `Òracle'' who was a sort of soothsayer. The town would gather around him and give him a shot of his favorite drink. He would declare something like `Ì can see it, I can see it now!'', and immediately a chorus in the background would break out with ``Hal-le-LUUUU-JAH!''. He would proceed to tell them what he thought was in the future. The town then pro- ceeded to help these things come about. Well I'm no soothsayer, but I want to tell you about a vision that I have. I once heard that the American Che- mical Society (ACS) is the largest pro- fessional society in the United States, perhaps in the world, boasting some 163,000 members. That's a large group sharing the common bond of chemistry. Yet they are quite diverse, repre- sented by some 35 different Divisions. Out of all of these members there are about 1,700 who share enough love or interest in safety to join the Division of Chemical Health and Safety (CHAS). Now that's a little more than 1% of the ACSÐalas a rather small group of a great number of chemists choosing to show their interest in safety. Its really great that CHAS has so many dedi- cated members, but I believe we can and must do better by getting other chemists to share this interest in safety. So how can we do this? Let me offer three suggestions. First we must engage them, catch and hold their interest! Easy to say, but tough to do. Offer them something they need, they wantÐa service that they ®nd useful. Providing safety information to ACS members through CHAS is an appealing service. We do this now through this journal, Chemical Health & Safety. We do this through our sym- posia and presentations at national ACS meetings, and soon through regio- nal meetingsÐthere's one in Princeton, NJ in June 2003. Our website (http:// membership.acs.org/c/chas/) provides information about our activities. Lastly we can offer our knowledge through many of our CHAS members who are `èxperts'' in safety. I think we are doing pretty good in the service depart- ment. Engaging them presents a chal- lenge since it requires a change in attitude and ethic. We need to work on this. Secondly, we need to ®nd a way to provide our services cheaper. In my opinion, this is one of our biggest hur- dles. CHAS has one of the highest division dues. That's because virtually all of our dues go to fund this journal, which is provided in printed form to all CHAS members. We need to ®nd a way to provide our services for only a few dollars so we can broaden our membership. I believe more chemists would join us if we could make our dues cheaper. The number of new members we could get would depend on the ®rst element, engaging them. Thirdly, we need to communicate the message of the importance of safety, keeping it in the forefront of everything we do. This will take more than just CHAS members promoting safety. It will take our chemical profes- sion reevaluating the role of safety to make it a value. See my article in this issue on ``Getting Safety into the Chemistry Curriculum.'' So let me give you my visionÐ`Ì can see it, I can see it now!'' That someday ``CHAS has 50,000 members who value, promote, and practice safety daily in their work.'' Let us in the ACS community proceed to help make this vision become reality. Sign up for CHAS at http://membership.acs.org/ c/chas/membership.htm and help us. Let's ®nd ways to communicate, engage, and recruit new members to the safety cause. Lets ®nd solutions to our challenges. Send me ([email protected] gov) or some other CHAS Executive Committee member (see page 2 of this issue) your ideas, suggestions or comments. Thanks. ``Hal-le-LUUUU- JAH!''. Robert H. Hill Jr., Ph.D Chair, Division of Chemical Health and Safety GUEST EDITORIAL 4 ß Division of Chemical Health and Safety of the American Chemical Society 1074-9098/03/$30.00 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S1074-9098(03)00003-0

i can see it, i can see it now!

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