DEAS/Physics/EPS Safety Committee

Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Noon-1:00PM

1. Video - No video was shown.

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--the report was emailed to Lenny after the meeting:

• McKay Labs (2nd floor) Room 211 - Hood requires recertification (expired 2/24/05)

B) Lyman Labs (Team 4, Damon Clark)

• Doyle Lab:
  • Lyman 24: Looks fine.
  • Lyman 29: Looks fine.
    
• Stan's Machine shop:
  
  • Noted new lathe safety shielding and new eyewash station. Things look good.
    
• Horowitz Lab:
  
  • Lyman 134: Fair amount of flammables (ethanol/acetone) in secondary container but no fire extinguisher handy.
    
  • Lyman 135: No sign on door.
    
• Lukin Lab:
  
  • Lyman 27: Head bump hazards around light table. Foam?
    
  • Lyman 230: Food sink with some non-food items on it. No "Food only" sign.
    
• Silvera Lab:
  
  • Lyman 127: Fine.
    
  • Lyman 128: Fine.
    
  • Lyman 131: Fine.
    
  • Lyman 130: Corroded hood with *wood* flammables and corrosives cabinet. Some flammables stored outside cabinet in secondary containers. Old corrosives in bad shape. Nitric acid especially is crystallizing out outside of bottle and on other bottles. Lots of dust -- looks like chemicals are not in regular use.
    
• Generally in all labs: Fire extinguishers were up to date, laser goggles handy, and gas cylinders were tied down.

C) ESL Lab - (Team 6, Joe Ustinowich)

Building: ESL

• Rm 117 - Unlabeled scummy beakers, unlabeled accumulation area (?), non safety goggles in drawer labeled as such.
• Second Floor:  All info sheets need updating.
  
  • Rm 203            Dark Room, unused, smells bad.  (?)
    
  • Rm 205            Looked great.
    
  • Rm 205C            Used as store room.  General mess, out of date Info sheet. Unlabeled cans of chemicals.
    
  • Rm 213            Laser on, door open, no sign.  What class is laser?
    
  • Rm 214            Laser light on, door propped open, no one in room (?).  Laser light down hall (Rm 216A was flashing, what is difference?).
    
  • Rm 215            Hood needs inspection. Unsecured cylinder.   Bottles in Cabinet look old and unused-labels go back to 2003.  Bottles on ferris wheel type mixer, have no containment in case of spill.  No clean up Kit?
    
  • Rm 215A            Cabinet under sink has uncapped bottles.
  • Rm 216A            Laser light on and Flashing – did not go in
    
  • Rm 228            Rusty container in refrigerator (Nitro Pheno), Chemical solution on mixer table with no containment or labels, no spill kits, safety equipment.
• Third Floor:
  
  • Rm 301            Hood needs inspection.
    
  • Rm 303            Looks good.
    
  • Rm 305            Acids and bases in same cabinet (bases in secondary container). This is supposedly OK.
    
  • Rm 322            Doubled up gas cylinders.
    
  • Rm 323            Hood needs inspection.
    
  • Rm 325            Poorly secured gas cylinders (6 with one small chain, looks like they could tip over.
• Fourth Floor:
  • Rm 415            Flammable cabinet under hood won’t close due to battle jamming mechanism.
  • Rm 400?            Laminar flow hoods are not inspected. Do they need to be?

D) A.R.T. Scene Shop - (Team 9, Lenny Solomon)

In general the scenery shop seemed to be in very good shape. It is well organized and run, and an environment has been created that puts safety at the forefront. Peer pressure is applied to try and make sure that everyone wears safety glasses when working with machinery and the shop’s management is very directly involved in the detailed operation
of the facility.

ISSUES:

1. A continuing issue is that there is only one fire alarm pull station for a very large area. This has been previously cited as a problem.
2. A grinding wheel needs to be adjusted to lesson the gap between the wheel and the rest that supports the piece being worked on. This will reduce the possibility of a piece getting caught in the gap and flying up at the operator.
3. The strain relief on the power cord to a drill press needed to be reset.
4. The eye wash station is to far away from where solvents are used. This has also been previously mentioned.

E) High Energy Physics, 60 Oxford St. - (Team 11, Mike Ranin)

38 Oxford St
            Machine Shop  - operated by Steve Sansone, safety ep Steve Sansone
            106  - Chris Stubbs group
            204      ""
            208      ""
            211      ""
           
60 Oxford St.
            323  G. Stanley Group, safety rep Rob Jenks
            318-320  -   R. Howe Group, safety rep Marius Linguraru
            328 - L. Mahadevan Group, safety rep Alexandre Kabla
            410 – A. Samuel Group, safety rep Damon Clark

38 Oxford St.  – Machine Shop

            1 old gas cylinder needs to be returned
            Exit doors need to be labeled better as well as doors that are not exits
            More goggles probably needed
-Microwave oven balanced on low wall segment; move to shelf or table
-Post test dates on shower/eye wash
-Shielding for several pieces of equipment; they are awaiting report from OSHA
-Radioisotope storage. Are required protocols being followed (e.g. record keeping,   site survey, training records, authorized users list)?
           

38 Oxford St. Room 106 Chris Stubbs group
            Optical table is too close to electrical panel.  Could be difficult to access panel
            There needs to be a closer fire extinguisher
            No personnel or call #’s posted
            Exit signs need to be posted inside of the lab

38 Oxford St. Room 204 Chris Stubbs group
            Food lying around
            No safety glasses
            No first aid kit
            No personnel or call #’s posted
            -isopropanol squirt bottle not labeled
-flux (?) bottle not labeled

38 Oxford St. Room 208 Chris Stubbs group

            No electrical panel or kill button
            No safety goggles
            Too much clutter
            No personnel or call #’s posted

38 Oxford St. Room 211 Chris Stubbs group
            No electrical panel or kill button
            No safety goggles
            No personnel or call #’s posted

60 Oxford St. Room 323 G. Stanley Group, safety rep Rob Jenks
            -Some squirt bottles not labeled properly
              Some broken glass not in sharps container
            No sharps container
            Hood needs to be tested
               323 Inner:  Chemical storage room
                        too much storage in hood
                        Pipet Tips in same cabinet as waste
                        No acid or base waste           
                        No reports on what biological level the lab is
                        Too cluttered
                       
60 Oxford St. Room 319 R. Howe Group, safety rep Marius Linguraru
            No kill switch in machine room
            No safety goggles in machine room
            No shielding for machine instruments
            Room 320
               No waste container
                No satellite accumulation area
            Room 318
               -clutter obstructing electrical panel access

60 Oxford St. Room 328  L. Mahadevan Group, safety rep Alexandre Kabla
            Hoods need to be tested
            Lots of unlabeled chemical bottles
            hood cabinet: stock acids stored with organics

60 Oxford St. Room 410  Samuel Group, safety rep Damon Clark
            Laser system looks good
            Make sure all biological waste boxes are closed
            Try to find a way to clear area around safety shower.  As of now the shower is
                directly over a desk
            In main lab some chemical bottles under the sink do not fit into allocated space (i.e. there is a glycerol bottle that has to be fit in slanted)
            Some unlabeled bottles
            Overall very good
            hood cabinet: stock acids stored with organics
            stock acids and organics stored in same cabinet
            exit sign needed for optics room, drawers/clutter in front of electrical panels.

F) Hoffman (Bsmt-2nd Floor) - (Team 12, Megan O'Grady)

Report was not given at meeting--it was emailed to Lenny at a later date:

Hoffman Basement
PI: Sarah Stewart-Mukhopadhyay
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~planets/shocklab.html

• Room B19
  
  • Crane needs inspection
  • Eye wash station outside lab area
  • Spill kit outside lab area
  • Chemicals should perhaps be placed in a cabinet instead of lying in the corner

Hoffman First Floor
PI: Charles Langmuir
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~langmuir/Facilities.html

• Hallway - Unlabeled bottles (it was corn syrup)
• Room 114B ICP-MS Lab – Need to label bottles with 2-3% nitric acid
• Room 115 Chemistry Room - no dates listed for hood inspections
• Room 120 Rock Preparation Room -
  • Solvent tray needs proper waste storage
    
  • Need to store hydrobromic acid somewhere besides the fume hood
• Clean Rooms 117A & 117B – Proper labeling of bottles (2-3% nitric acid)

Second Floor
PI: Sujoy Mukhopadhyay
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~mukhop/labs.htm

• Room 236 -
  • 2nd containment needed for some chemicals
  • some old chemicals, no eyewash, HUGE corrosives container
  • large unlabeled bottle of clear liquid
  • need to have hazardous waste in secondary containment, bottles with chemicals left on the floor.
• Room 236A - no first aid kit near blades
• Room 233 – laser goggles not well marked in room with giant laser

Second Floor
PI: Stein Jacobsen

• Room 228 -  Clutter in Hallway, no contact/door information, small gas tanks not attached to wall
• Room 204 - Inspection for fire extinguishers, contacts listed on doors
• Room 211 -
  • Busted door knob/lock, clutter in hallway, tag for eyewash/showers, antidote not clearly labeled
  • old old bottles, glass bottles on the floor, acids on high shelves
  • no satellite accumulation areas near points of use
  • other door knob sticks
  • no contact information or  list of hazards
  • dirty (latex) lab gloves lying on countertop
  • no labeling of solvents
  • HF antidote hidden
  • lab member didn’t know the contents of a lot of the chemicals due to poor labeling
  • used 15ml tubes needed to be thrown away (kept in large beaker)
  • huge bottle of acids on high shelves (large bottles of HCl stored ~ 6 ft)
  • lab member was walking around in socks
  • fume hoods used as storage space
  • bottle of nitric acid on floor, bottle of nitric acid stored next to heated lamp
  • 50 ml tubes with unlabeled liquids about to fall over
  • no satellite accumulation area
  • bottles of HF left out
  • no tag on safety shower

3. Follow-up Reports

A) McKay Labs, 3rd to 5th Floors

• No one was present to give a follow-up report for these labs.

B) Cruft & Pierce Labs

• No one was present to give a follow-up report for these labs.

C) Jefferson Labs

• Gabrielse Lab - all was taken care of. Their hood has a flammables cabinet built into it.
• Golovchenko Lab - The chemicals in the centrifuge tubes are now gone.

D) Maxwell/Dworkin Building

• No follow up report. It was remarked that the class IIIb laser in Room 315 needs a safety sign.

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

• The bottom line -- Lenny is still waiting to hear back from the person he contacted.

5. EH&S Report - Michael Labosky

• Chris Centrella sent a message around recently about the DEP making a survey of Satellite Accumulation Areas at local colleges. They are looking for hazardous waste that has been improperly taken care of. There were some issues at some colleges. They are in the area and could possibly visit Harvard in the future.
• In the Mountain Lab in Biochem, there was a small fire recently. A bunsen burner was knocked over into ethanol which caught a lab worker's shirt on fire. They put the fire out quickly with water--that fact bothered the Fire Department. The person suffered 2nd degree burns. It was noted that the lab was cluttered with all kinds of junk. They were told to correct this and clean the place up. The faculty member shut down the lab for aa day to clean the space of any non-essential junk that could present safety hazardous. NOTE: Any flammable liquids not being used should be stored.
• The Chemtracker tool has been favorably received. It's close to being bought by Harvard.
• Lab fume hoods -- you will notice a new sticker on the fume hoods. They just finished with the McKay area.
• SAAs - safety reps should check their Satellite Accumulation Areas weekly.

6. Hazardous Waste Training Report - Rob Stanhope

Rob reported on several people needing retraining

7. Old Business

• RSI Talk - Lenny gave a RSI safety talk to DEAS and it went well.
• Safety Seminars for Spring 2006 -most will be by request only now.
• Shoe Truck - April 13th, 11:00-1:00pm - $88 reimbursement

8. New Business - none

Next Meeting: Wednesday, May 10, 2006, 12:00 noon, Maxwell/Dworkin 119