DEAS/Physics Safety Committee

Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, February 8, 2006
Noon-1:00PM

1. Video - "Laser Safety " (17 minutes) - Video projector was still not working!

2. 2005/2006 Lab Inspection Schedules - Lenny

One team has not yet indicated when its inspection will be made :

1. Team # 8 Yuan Lu - they will inspect on February 8th

REMINDER: It is a good idea to inform labs of their impending inspection, so that we do not disturb their experiments.

3. Lab Inspection Reports - Lenny

A) McKay Cleanrooms - Team 10 (Lenny Solomon)

Lab Inspection - McKay Cleanrooms
Lenny Solomon, Liz Main, Steve Shepard

BASEMENT:
There was a small amount of chemical storage in the plastic orange
toolboxes that users have to store their gear. This runs counter to the rules
set by the cleanroom staff. Is this a problem that needs to be addressed?

There is an emergency electrical shutoff switch near the Raith electron
beam machine but the button is unlabeled.

There is a laser built into the Heidelberg Mask Writer. What is the nature of
this laser, i.e. is it a class 3B or 4? Should it be labeled as a possible laser
hazard?

The deluge shower and eyewash station should have a sign installed
indicating where it´s located.

The HF hood did have the antidote but the label was very small and it even
took Steve a minute or two to find it. There should be a very visible sign
indicating where the antidote is stored.

There were several unlabeled bottles of chemicals in the flammable cabinet

There were several unlabeled bottles of chemicals in the solvent hood. The
solvents tend to wipe away the labels. Perhaps there should be spare,
labeled containers available in the room.

A gas bottle was not tied down. That was corrected during the inspection.

SECOND FLOOR:
Goggles for use with chemicals were available but they are not regularly
used. There should be a large sign reminding users to employ splash
goggles when using chemicals.

There were several unlabeled bottles of chemicals in the solvent hood. The
solvents tend to wipe away the labels. Perhaps there should be spare,
labeled containers available in the room.

There were several unlabeled bottles of chemicals in the flammable cabinet

There was one unsecured compressed gas bottle (O2 next to the "burn box"
in the hallway).

Question- How often should the hazardous gas monitors be tested and what
is the procedure when they go off. Was the procedure posted?

B) McKay Labs, Basement to Floor 2 - Team 1 (Yu Ching Yung)

• Inspection needs to be rescheduled!

4. Evacuation Planning and Floor Plans - Status Report - Lenny

• Lenny called Mr. Fallon again. He agreed with Lenny that they needed a meeting, but he has still not called Lenny back to set one up.

5. EH&S Report - Michael Labosky

• Eye wash stations: EH&S met with Water Saver Company. Michael reminded the safety officers to flow their eyewash stations weekly for about 5 minutes. This is important to keep them working properly and to make sure they are working at all.
• Flammable Storage Permits - Ed Jackson and Stuart McNeil are in charge of making sure our permits are valid. Eh&S will help them to get the information together.

There was some discussion of the Thaddeus Lab set-up with certain dangerous materials and MSDS sheets. It might be helpful for their lab to have a "map" available for the Fire Department showing the location of their hazardous chemicals, as well as MSDS sheets.

6. Lab Inspection Follow-ups

John Tsakirgis will have to give a lab inspection follow up report at the March meeting.

7. Monthly SAA Reports - Lenny

• Every month Lenny receives a report from EH&S regarding the inspection status of the Satellite Accumulation Areas (SAAs) in all of our labs.
• Physics has been good --there have been several months in which Physics SAAs have had little or no problems with hazardous waste storage.
• This month the Mooney Lab had several issues.
• The Weitz Lab in McKay has continuous problems with the SAAs in rooms 513 and 531. Safety reps for these areas need to do a better job monitoring the storage in these SAAs.

8. Hazardous Waste Training Report - Rob Stanhope

Rob reported on several people needing retraining

9. Old Business

• Chemical Database - VWR gave us an Excel file containing a list of chemical purchases by DEAS, Physics and EPS. Lenny will receive a file like this every month from VWR. This should cover about half of all of our chemical purchases.
• Lenny will talk to Joe Chen about the removal of cylinders from the 5th floor labs in McKay.

10. New Business

• There was an article in the Harvard Gazette recently about RSI that cited a medical study which claimed computer usage does not cause carpal tunnel syndrome. Lenny contacted the reporter who referred him to a Harvard Report. It appears that the claims by the Harvard Gazette were greatly exaggerated.
• Lenny will look into copying the RSI handout for the Safety Committee.
• Training for EPS - Chuck Lichtenwalner will get in touch with paul Kelley to set this up.

Next Meeting: Wednesday, March 8, 2006, 12:00 noon, Maxwell/Dworkin 119