DEAS/Physics Safety Committee

Meeting Minutes

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

1. Video - "Laser Safety " (17 minutes) - Video projector worked this time.

2. Lab Inspection Reports

A) McKay Labs, Basement to 2nd Floor (Team 1, Yu Ching Yung)

- Yu Ching was not present at meeting to give report

B) McKay Labs, 3rd to 5th Floors (Team 2, Greg Eischeid)

Room 304

• No evidence of fire extinguisher.
• Lab benches full of clutter.

Room 322

• No chemical spill kit.
• Clutter on floor and benches.
• Hazardous waste(pump oil) on floor in cardboard box.

Room 328 

• No emergency Access Sheet on Door.
• Very sharp surgical blades left on counter exposed.

Room 329

• Waste labeling not consistent.
• Hood messy, unlabelled containers.
• Fire extinguisher in hall blocked by LN2 tank.

Room 330

• Gas cylinder not in use not capped.

Room 314

• Four bicycles in lab.
• Wires on floor.

Room 312

• One bottle not marked in flow hood.

Room 312A

• Eye wash had no inspection tag.
• Large beaker with unknown liquid substance on floor. Not labeled and should be moved.

Room 303

• No emergency access sheet on door.

Room 406/408A

• Vacuum pump on floor exhaust to air.
• High power furnaces on benches, no exhaust, fire safety??
• Wires on floor
• Clutter on all surfaces, not clean.

Room 418

• Clutter, boxes, unused equipment on floor and atop cabinets.

Room 421

• Precariously stored boxes high atop cabinets.
• Unused gas cylinder not capped.
• Unsecured gas tanks in use.
• Hoses running along floor.

Room 424

• Gas cylinder that is not being used needs to be capped.

Room 424C

• Need an updated access sheet.

Room 427

• Oil spill on floor.
• Hazardous materials improperly stored and labeled.
• Older, poorly maintained equipment haphazardly placed in room.

Room 417

• Need an updated access sheet.

Rooms 506/510/512/516/518

• Need an updated access sheet.
• Gas cylinder storage area between Rooms 510/506
• Two cylinders with caps.

C) Cruft & Pierce Labs - (Team 3, Greg Kennedy)

Hoffman Lab in G13 Pierce:
Spaceheater in lab
Fire Extinguisher access is blocked
No SAA registration
No eyewash
Open waste Containers
No Contact information Posted

CadCam lab G7 Pierce:
Improperly stored chemicals
no SAA for chemicals used in the room

Stone Lab G6 G7A Pierce
No SAA registered
Huge numbers of sharps containers full
broken glass container was falling apart
No safety shower or eye wash available

Pierce B4
Many gas cylinders- refilled original nitrogen containers and relabeled with
paper tag, usually refilled with other gasses without destroying nitrogen
label, no tracking system or inventory apparent.
The gas bottle have not been tested after several years of reuse.
Some good storage space is available, but not adaquate for the quantity of
bottles, also the storage room does not have ventillation
Need to schedule pickup for waste area, some unlabeled containers near waste
area, other labels not remved from empty bottles

Pierce Crozier Lab
Laser goggles are not well placed or identified for particular lasers.
Class 3 and 4 Lasers may not be registered with EHS.
Kitchenette built within the lab space
No contact information was posted on the door

Cruft 116
Some bottles of unknown age
Acid stored on floor in secondary containment
huge quantity of used dirty beakers that were unlabeled
Old chemicals in refrigerator
fume hood needed inspection
excessive chemicals stored in fumehood
home made Argon purge glovebox vents to room

Cruft 115
ok
Cruft 111
ok
Cruft 110
needs shower test

Lyman 23 part of cruft 111 group, not often inspected

Safety shower might be to far and not well posted
Need check on fire extinguisher
Some equipment shutoff and gas control panels behind large equipment
No HF available, but sometimes is used, safety rep did not know about possible
locatin of antidote

D) Jefferson Labs - (Team 5, Edem Tsikata)

Gabrielse Lab

• drink (coffee flask) present in work area
• fire extinguisher outdated (last inspected in 2003)
• no flammables cabinet for
• waste chemical labels not fully labeled (percentage composition not entered fully)
• holes in the floor not completely fenced off
  

Golovchenko

• drink in work area (water and pepsi bottles)
• trip hazards - small number of loose cables
• chemical labels not fully filled out (percentages incomplete)
• gas cylinder with no threads for a cap present (recommendation made to change cylinder style - manufacturer's fault)
• small amounts of chemicals in centrifuge tubes stored together with pH ranging from 2 to 14.
• glass waste container full
  

Prentiss

• trip hazards - unsecured cables in walking areas
• sharps container for biological waste (syringes) not labeled
• flammables cabinet used for general storage
• lots of containers in satellite accumulation area (>15)
• chemical labels incompletely filled out
  

General: Physicists and biologists in lab need to coordinate better, e.g. chemical disposal, unlabeled chemical in glove box

E) Maxwell/Dworkin Building - (Team 8, Yuan Lu)

• Room 316--- paper too close to the table top laboratory oven.
• Room 315--- class IIIb laser (need to look into the safty protection)

3. Follow-up Reports

A. McKay Cleanrooms - John Tsakirgis

In response to the inspection report, John said they have been overhauling all procedures in the cleanrooms for chemical waste handling and chemical supplies.

• They dealt with old chemicals
• bought new caabinets
• created better labeling
• they are looking into having preprinted chemical labels to cut down on labeling errors
• Triumvirate removed a huge aamount of old chemicals
• an exit and evacuation procedure is posted in the basement
• A list showing detailed information on their various alarms is also posted.

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

• Lenny is still waiting to hear back from the person he contacted.

5. EH&S Report - Michael Labosky

• Paul Group - all cylinders have been removed.
• W.R. Grace has put aside a large amount of money to help universities with the removal of asbestos. Mike Labosky said the building managers should give EH&S information about their asbestos removal needs so that we can use some of these funds.
• Lab hoods - EH&S is continuing with its inventory of all hoods. Science Center will be inventoried next month.
• Lenny emailed everyone the news about an overpressure accident in Texas. It is advisable to go to the website listed in the email and read the consultant's report. If you use cryogens, make sure the dewars are not overly frosted. The relief valves may not work if they are frozen over.

6. Hazardous Waste Training Report - Rob Stanhope

Rob reported on several people needing retraining

7. Old Business

• Lenny presented copies of "The Hand Report" by HMS. He has only a few copies, but people are welcome to borrow them. There has been some controversy around the studies in the report.
• Eye exams -- Do regulations demand an eye exam before a person can work with a laser? Mike Labsoky said he thinks the answer is no, but he would recommend one to establish the "baseline" of the person's eye health. Mike will look into this further.
• ESL - there was a question about disposal of broken glass that is normal glass, not contaminated. Such glass should be placed in a "broken glass disposal" box which can be purchased in the VWR stockroom in Chemistry. The box can then be thrown out by the custodial staff.

8. New Business

• Weitz Group (McKay) - they are concerned about their unvented flammable cabinets. EH&S will talk to them about this.
• Lenny will give a talk for DEAS on RSI on April 5th at 12:00pm-1:00pm. Not sure of the location.

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