DEAS/Physics Safety Committee

Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, January 13, 1999
Noon-1:00PM

1. Video - "Chemists in the Classroom"

• After the video Lenny distributed the new handbook called "Hazardous Materials Compliance" by Triumvirate Environmental, Inc.
• Lenny introduced a guest, Joe Griffin, head of EH&S

2. Inspection Schedules:

The following people submitted their inspection schedules:

A) McKay - Yuki Sugimura - January 25th at 1:00pm
B) Cruft/Pierce - Simson Alex - January 25th at 10:00am
C) Jefferson/Lyman - Jennifer Mullin - January 19th at 1:00pm
D) ESL - Steve Shepard - January 21 at 10:00am in the ESL lobby
E) The Link - Paul Evans - COMPLETED on January 12th.

3. Hazardous Waste Training Report:

• Refresher Training on the web site: Rob reported that there are many people who need to be reminded to complete their Refresher Training in January and February. Several people at the meeting said they would personally remind the people they knew.
• Inspection of Satellite Accumulation Areas: Rob sends weekly email reminders to SAA Monitors to inspect their SAAs. The SAA Monitors are asked to reply within a few days to indicate that they have inspected their areas and to report any problems. Unfortunately, several Monitors have never responded to these weekly reminders. Lenny has also noted that the SAAs with a high percentage of problems (cited on periodic EH&S inspection reports) seem to be the same areas of Monitors who have not responded to Rob's email reminders. One monitor said he did not realize he had to respond every week. Everyone was asked to be more consistent in their reporting of the weekly SAA inspections.
• Lenny pointed out that an inspection report by EH&S which shows DEAS had problems in 18% of its SAAs is erroneous. The percentage was incorrect, because it is based on the number of bottles and not the number of locations. EH&S said it was in the process of changing its reports so that they reflect the total number of problematic containers.
• Henry Littleboy mentioned he has been looking into the labeling system. It has been simplified and now matches the "Hazardous Materials Compliance" handbook by Triumvirate. The tear-off section is gone.

4. Web Page Update:

Standard Operating Procedures - Several people still have not returned a completed SOP. Lenny said he will call these individuals to encourage them to submit their SOPs as soon as possible. Completed SOPs can be found at http://www.deas-safety.harvard.edu/sop/chart.html.

5. Safety Training database

Lenny announced that the master Safety Training database as been installed on the Safety Committee web site 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.

The database consists of two lists:

• Personnel Data - a list of personnel and their contact information.
• Training Details - a list of training needs and training history of personnel.

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.

Lenny would like everyone to visit the Training Database online and let him know how it can be improved.

6. Report from Environmental Health and Safety

A) Peter Bochnak:

1. New labels for Hazardous Waste tags: The reactive box has been removed. The new labels will hopefully correct any deficiency in labeling
2. Online training: The Boston Consortium (11 colleges) was consulted on lab safety training and hazardous waste online training. Nancy Curtin is the coordinator for Harvard. The lab safety training will be about 90 minutes, and our own Safety Committee representatives will be beta-testers for it. They hope to have classroom modules soon. The intention is to make training a core-requirement. The training itself may be broken down into modules in order to reach everyone.
3. Ergonomics Training: This can be found by clicking on "Hot Topics" at the EH&S web site (http://www.uos.harvard.edu/ehs/). Everyone should check this out and take the online training.
4. EPA: They finished looking at 200 sites. We will be seeing their findings soon. It is uncertain if the EPA will return to Harvard, so we cannot afford to slack off in the meantime.

B) Henry Littleboy:

• The Bio Safety Training module is now on the EH&S web site.

C) Chris Centrella:

1. EH&S reports will determine compliance per bottle (percentage of containers not sites).
2. Future reports will contain more information.

D) Joe Griffin:

1. He is not sure when the EPA will come to Harvard again. Their first phase will be done in about two weeks. Phase II will start soon and Harvard needs to be ready. People will be notified when they arrive.
2. There will be a seminar between Harvard Medical School, School of Public Health and the EPA on March 24th. Topic will be: "What are the goals of this Charles River Assessment and what has been found?" Invitations will be sent out.
3. The Harvard Compliance Officers will meet with EH&S.

7. Old Business

Lenny mentioned that Joe Griffin and he are on a FAS committee, where he will present our recent thoughts on improving safety training.

8. New Business

• Ralph Generazzo asked if the EH&S inspectors could update the contact people in each lab and the compressed gases they use.
• Lenny reminded everyone about an upcoming lab safety workshop which is open to all. It is an all-day event. Anyone who signs up for it should let Lenny know.

Next Meeting: Wednesday, February 10, 1999, 12:00 Noontime, Pierce 100F