DEAS/Physics Safety Committee
Wednesday, October 11, 2000
Noon-1:00PM
The Safety Committee met in Room 119 of the new Maxwell-Dworkin Building. Lenny Solomon welcomed everyone back from the summer break. Safety Committee reps and members introduced themselves for the benefit of anyone who was new to the Committee. Lenny announced that the American Repertory Theater Scene Shop is now a member of the Safety Committee. The ART Scene Shop is located in the HEPL building and its staff attend the safety seminars last spring.
Lenny distributed several handouts containing safety-related background and contact information, and gave a brief description of the history and duties of the committee. The DEAS/Physics Safety Committee was started in 1983 to promote safe practices in labs at DEAS and the Physics Department. It meets on the second Wednesday of each month from October through June, and the appointed Safety representatives are expected to attend these meetings. The Committee's web site at http://www-safety.deas.harvard.edu is a key point of reference for any safety related issues, and Lenny encouraged everyone to bookmark it in their web browsers. All safety reps should take the time to read the online Safety Manual and Chemical Hygiene Plan on the web site, as well as pages dealing with safety training, evacuation plans, and other emergency related items.
(a) Safety Training
- Safety Seminar Series - Every year from late winter to early spring, the Committee presents a series of live training lectures on a variety of safety issues. These seminars are extremely important for new lab workers or people who need refresher training. A new schedule of the 2000/2001 series will be posted on the web site in the near future.
- Lab Safety and Hazardous Waste Safety Training - All DEAS/Physics staff and students who work in experimental lab settings must be trained in hazardous waste safety. People take an initial one-hour classroom training session by EH&S and each year thereafter must complete an online retraining test at the EH&S web site.
- Training Database - A database is maintained on the Committee's web site to keep an up-to-date record of the training needs of DEAS and Physics personnel and students. To keep the information as accurate as possible, Lenny encouraged all of the safety reps to log on to the online database and look for records pertaining to their specific group. They should notify Lenny Solomon or Rob Stanhope, if any new group members are not in the database, or if anyone in your group needs a particular kind of safety training.
- The Safety Training is located at http://www-safety.deas.harvard.edu/services/dbintro.html.
- Public access outside of the DEAS/Physics Safety Committee and its representatives is not permitted, since the information is considered confidential.
- Because access is restricted, anyone using the database must first create a user's account (with username and password). This is a simple process which is done online.
- An online Help/Guide explains how to sort and filter the database. These sorting and filtering features make the Safety Training database particularly useful to find out who has or has not been trained in a specific lab or group. The Guide provides a key to the abbreviations used in the database.
(b) Multimedia Laser Safety Training - We are currently editing a videotaped safety seminar on Laser Safety by Eric Mazur. The video will become an online training course in Laser Safety and will be presented on the Safety Committee web site.
(c) Safety Equipment Testing - Safety showers, hoods, fire extinguishers, etc. are tested annually.
(d) Fire Drills - The Safety Committee tries to provide fire drills at least once per year.
(e) Ph.D. Hit Squad - Graduating doctoral students must be accountable for the chemicals they ordered during their work at Harvard. A list of these chemicals is maintained by the Safety Committee. All chemicals should be labeled with the student's name, date of purchase, and chemical name.
(f) Hazardous Waste Safety - In accordance with EPA regulations, anyone who works with chemicals must be trained by attending a live lecture on laboratory and hazardous waste safety. Henry Littleboy provides these training lectures on the 2nd Tuesday of each month. See the schedule for time and location at the following web page: http://www.uos.harvard.edu/ehs/training/ehs_class_sched.html. All new staff and grad students must attend one of these lectures. Retraining is needed every year; this is accomplished by reading a short online retraining course and answering a few questions on the web site. Hazardous waste retraining can be found at: http://www.uos.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/ehs/page_1.pl.
(g) Training Videos and Safety Books - short training videos are shown at the beginning of each Safety Committee meeting. A selection of 20-30 training videos are available for private and group viewing. A collection of reference books on safety is available as well. The list of available video titles and books is on the web site. They can be borrowed by contacting Lenny Solomon at 5-4215.
(h) Waste Disposal - Lenny reviews periodic inspection reports of our satellite accumulation areas. When there are violations of safety procedure, he will contact the assigned SAA monitors and determine what the problem is.
(i) Lab Inspections - Safety reps inspect labs yearly. In November, Lenny will create inspection teams consisting of 3 to 5 safety reps. During January and February, the teams will inspect their pre-assigned labs and present their results to the Committee. The inspections will focus on equipment, work space, chemical storage, safety violations, and unsafe lab practices (such as evidence of food or drink in lab areas), etc. The local safety rep for each lab will need to address any issues discovered during the inspections and make a follow-up report to the Committee. Building issues will be resolved with Ed Jackson (DEAS) and Stuart McNeil (Physics).
Lenny asked the committee to make suggestions for improvement. Is there anything we are not doing that we could be doing to improve safety in the labs?
- Henry Littleboy - we should analyze any accidents that occur. There could be more discussion and analysis of accidents within the committee.
- Mary Walsh - we could have fire drills DURING the school year, not just in summer months.
- Peter Pershan - Faculty should be advised how to evacuate their classroom during a fire alarm.
- Mike Labosky - Mike commented that EH&S performs fire drills in student residences during the evening. He said testing would work better when there is full-occupancy of the building--fire drills will be more useful if they are conducted during the school year.
- It was mentioned that Jean Humber maintains a list of classes and their meeting times/locations. These lists should be made available for fire marshals or the fire department during fire alarms.
- Steve Shepard - "New Business" seems to be cut short when it is discussed at the end of the meeting. Perhaps we should discuss new business at the beginning of the meeting.
EH&S conducted the annual summer lab inspections. Lenny will distributed the results to the committee members within the week. Safety Reps should address any issues raised in the inspections.
Some important issues:
- HF antidotes - the inspections noted that many HF antidotes were out-of-date. Lenny sent everyone an e-mail about it. These old antidotes need to be replaced.
- Signs on doors listing contact information need to be replaced every September. Safety reps must check these signs to make sure they are up-to-date with correct home phone numbers and office numbers. The fire department gets very upset when contact info is not correct.
(a) Mike Labosky -
- EH&S has been involved with the West Nile Virus issue. You can find information about it on their web site.
- Nitrogen leak in NY State - the leak was in a small enclosed space with little ventilation and no oxygen monitoring device. A technician was killed. This should remind us to be careful about working in small unventilated spaces. EH&S can visit your work area and review the space for potential hazards.
- Vermiculite - Apparently there have been cases where vermiculite is contaminated with asbestos. If you work with vermiculite, please check the Vermiculite Fact Sheet on the EH&S web site.
(b) Mary Burl - Lessons to be learned from the lab inspections:
- All refrigerators in labs should be labelled. Absolutely no food in refrigerators.
- Warning lights for laser usage should be turned on when lasers are in use.
- Remember to change cylinders.
- No food and drink in labs.
(c) Sid - some laser warning lights were not working properly during inspections. These need to be fixed and interlocked.
Rob Stanhope (Safety Coordinator) told the Committee that he will provide monthly reports on the training and retraining of personnel in hazardous waste safety. He will provide safety reps with a list of people who are past due for training, so that they can personally remind them to complete the retraining.
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