DEAS/Physics Safety Committee
Wednesday, November 18, 1998
Noon-1:00PM
At the beginning of the meeting, we viewed a 14 minute safety video on Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. The video stressed that early prevention is key to reducing or eliminating pain and damage. Lenny Solomon mentioned there is a new ergonomic type of computer mouse which can help. Anyone can call EH&S for an evaluation of their workspace.
A) Chavva Reddy - Chavva is new to the Safety Committee and represents Dean Venky Narayanamurti (McKay 313).
B) Dawen Pang - Dawen is representing W. Paul's Group (McKay 509).
C) Beth Isabelle - She is doing a research project with Tufts University on environmental health and safety procedures and is visiting our Safety Committee.
Lenny announced and discussed the new subcommittee assignments. A few of the committees were highlighted as follows:
A) Executive Committee - the people on this committee can be contacted if there is an unresolved safety problem.
B) Chemical Tracking - maintains a database of all chemicals purchased and by whom.
C) Fire Alarms and Fire Drills - conducts fire alarm testing in June, as well as fire extinguisher training.
D) Hazardous Waste Removal - the next instructional talk will be on December 8th (second Tuesday of the month) in Mallinckrodt 107.
E) Web Page Review and Maintenance - contact Lenny Solomon if you have any suggestions for the Safety Committee web site.
F) Testing of Showers - lab safety showers and eyewash stations are tested annually.
G) Machine Shop Safety - Stan Cotreau gives ongoing machine shop safety training sessions.
H) Victuals - Frank Molea is in charge of procuring the delicious food for our meetings!
I) Lab Inspection Teams - once a year our committee inspects its own facilities; EH&S does a follow-up inspection in the summer.
Jefferson Machine Shop - Stan Cotreau reported that an accident occurred in the machine shop on October 26, 1998. A commercial product called "Bright Dip" (mostly phosphoric acid) was in a closed container. Apparently something caused a reaction (perhaps a piece of steel dropped in the bucket) and orange smoke began to come out of the top cap as well as acid oozing out of its sides. The building was evacuated, which went well; however, someone on the 4th floor did not leave the building until 30 minutes after evacuation. Cambridge Fire Hazmat Teams and Harvard's EH&S oversaw the cleanup.
Prevention: the product "Bright Dip" will only be used under controlled and limited conditions. It will be used in fume hoods only and will not be used in public areas.
Safety Training Discussion - the discussion of accidents led to questions about training issues. How often should training be done? How should it be monitored? How do we increase attendance? Who should be trained and how often should they be retrained? Should we put a training list on the web site? Henry suggested the use of ID key cards which must be used to gain access to lab areas and stockrooms. The cards would expire periodically and could be activated or reactivated after personnel and students had met training or retraining requirements. Lenny will have the committee discuss this in greater detail at next month's meeting.
Rob reported only two names of people who had not taken the retraining course online. Committee members were asked to remind them.
A) Evacuation plans are on the Safety Committee web page. All Safety Committee members are responsible for making sure everyone is out of the building and fire doors are closed when emergencies occur.
B) Satellite Accumulation Areas - a list of SAA areas and the people who are responsible for them is now posted on the web site. Rob Stanhope sends weekly inspection reminders to the SAA monitors.
C) S.O.P.s (Standard Operating Procedures) - We have received several completed SOPs and have posted them on the web site. Lenny has sent reminders to those people who have not yet submitted their SOPs. You can see a current list at http://www-safety.deas.harvard.edu/sop/chart.html. It is very important that we have up-to-date SOPs for each lab area.
D) "Dead links" - defunct and dead-end URLs and hypertext links are a continuous problem with web sites. To make sure our web site is as up-to-date and functional as possible, Rob Stanhope will be periodically double-checking our myriad links to Safety related web sites.
NIOSH's excellent list of Chemical Protective Gloves/Clothing has been added to our list of other web resources.
A) Henry Littleboy - Henry reported that a subcommittee is looking at problems regarding the training of students. He also reminded us that evacuation plans should list all people in the building with disabilities. Once people have been evacuated, they should stand at least 300 feet away from lab areas.
B) Peter Bochnak - EPA will resume inspections in the Charles River basin. Reports on the MIT visit will be released in November. DEP visited Harvard on October 20th, specifically Holyoke Center and the Operations Center; however, no labs were visited.
Ergonomics training can be found by clicking on "Hot Topics" at the EH&S web site.
C) Chris Centrella - Chris reported on the EPA visit to MIT. Apparently they focused on silica gel waste. EH&S took a look at our own silica gel waste and discovered we are above the limits. EH&S will now collect it as hazardous waste.
Lenny reported that there had been a problem with a mercury cleanup by Clean Harbors. He and Henry Littleboy have been settling that issue.
Lenny passed out several copies of "Review of Safety Guidelines for Peroxidizable Organic Chemicals", an article by Richard J. Kelly in Chemical Health & Safety (Sept-Oct 1996).
Next Meeting: Wednesday, December 9, 1998, 12:00 Noontime, Pierce 100F
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