SEAS/Physics/EPS Safety Committee

Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Noon-1:00PM

1. Video - "Chemists in the Classroom" - 12 minutes.

2. Lab Inspection Reports

The following teams presented their inspection reports:

• Team 3 McKay 3rd Floor - presented by Lee Farina -- Download PDF here: McKay_3_LabInspection20071212.pdf
• Team 6 McKay Cleanrooms - presented by John Gillen --
  Basement Cleanroom:
  -No sign explicitly forbidding food and drink, although this should be obvious.
  -Fume hood inspection overdue, but it seems to be working fine.
  Upstairs Cleanroom:
  -Once again no sign explicitly forbidding food and drink.
  -Fume hood inspection overdue, but it seems to be working fine.
  -Large mess of cables/compressed gas bottles in the south-central part of the room near plasma cleaner.
  Upstairs Cleanroom Chase:
  -Need to put secondary containment in for all roughing pumps. (some don't have it)
  -Think about adding spill sensors to sense potential water leaks.
  -Housekeeping in general, somewhat hard to navigate back there, potential to be trapped in emergency situation.
• Team 7 Cruft & Maxwell/Dworkin - presented by Ben Lee -- -- Download PDF here: Team7Report.pdf
• Team 8 Pierce Hall - this report was postponed until the January meeting.

NOTE: MD 313 and 315 is a new lab space. They probably need an official safety officer.

3. Follow-up reports:

A. ESL 3rd & 4th Floors

• Mitchell lab - all problems fixed
• Parker Lab - "Dacilities" is aware of the problem with the eyewash station. Lenny said they need to check to see if they are situated within 10 seconds of an eyewash station.
• Mooney Lab - They defrosted the fridge; removed waste bottles; biohazard containers are emptied when full; moved freezer.
• Edwards Lab - The empty cylinders are gone now.
• Martin lab - The cylinders have been removed.

4. Lab Inspection Schedules

The following teams have not scheduled a lab inspection:

• Team 2 - McKay 2nd Floor
• Team 4 - McKay 4th Floor
• Team 5 - McKay 5th Floor
• Team 9 - Jefferson
• Team 11 - ESL Basement - 2nd Floor

5. Department of Homeland Security List of Chemicals of Interest

There was a lenghty discussion of the "List of Chemicals of Interest" that Harvard is required to address. Lenny raised a question about quantity limits and it was answered as: if the maximum limit is 10,00 pounds for a certain chemical, then that limit is for the whole University, not per lab.

EH&S has used ChemTraker to designate chemicals on the "list" for which the University needs to gather an inventory. Every lab is required to use ChemTraker to inventory any chemicals on the list. The deadline for the inventory is February 1, 2008. Miriam from EH&S provided training at the safety meeting by showing slides and giving printed handouts. If you are not able to log into ChemTRaker, contact her through EH&S.

Lenny urged EH&S to talk to "Procurement" to set up a system to provide information on exactly what chemicals are purchased at Harvard.

miriam will add a FAQ to the EH&S website on how to use ChemTraker.

6. Hazardous Waste Report - Lenny

Lenny pointed out some problems with hazardous waste disposal in certain labs.

7. Old Business - none

8. New Business - none

Next Meeting: Wednesday, January 9, 2007, 12:00 noon, Maxwell/Dworkin 119