DEAS/Physics Safety Committee

Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, March 10, 1999
Noon-1:00PM

1. Video - "Handling Nitrogen and Argon Safely"

2. Inspection Schedules:

A) Cruft/Pierce - Simson Alex - (report to be given in April)
B) Jefferson/Lyman - Jennifer Mullin. The complete report has been submitted to Lenny Solomon and forwarded to the Jefferson and Lyman lab areas. Some of Jen's observations are as follows:

• Some compressed gas cylinders were not sufficiently restrained. People should be more aware of how to properly strap such cylinders.
• Six fire extinguishers' inspection dates had expired.
• One electrical outlet near a sink might not be ground fault protected..
• Power strips were on the floor. They should be mounted above the floor in case of flooding.

3. Follow-up Inspection Reports:

• The Link (Anderson and Wofsy Groups) - everything is ok.
• McKay - follow-up report will be delayed until April meeting.
• ESL - follow-up report will be delayed until April meeting.
• HEPL - all reported concerns have been fixed.

4. Hazardous Waste Training Report:

Rob Stanhope reported that the reminders for retraining were working well. A few erroneous email addresses have made it difficult to reach three people who need retraining. Rob will continue to try to locate them.

5. Web Page Update:

Standard Operating Procedures - A few people still have not returned a completed SOP: Chip Coldwell (Horowitz), Navin Khaneja (Brockett), Joe Ustinowich (Pierce undergraduate labs). Completed SOPs can be found at http://www.deas-safety.harvard.edu/sop/chart.html.

Safety Training Database - Lenny encouraged people to use the database and send him any suggestions. One person requested a "last updated" date to be placed on the web page.

6. Report from Environmental Health and Safety - Peter Bochnak/Henry Littleboy

• Peter Bochnak reminded everyone that EPA could still inspect Harvard and we all need to be prepared.
• Web Training - Soon everyone will be emailed regarding the lab safety web-based training which is being developed by the Boston Consortium. It is nearly finished.
• Henry Littleboy stated that undergraduates aren't getting on the training list. Apparently their names need to entered by each lab.
• The new Harvard Compressed Gas Committee hopes to choose an appropriate vendor this year. They also want to place a bar code on each cylinder for easier inventory.
• In answer to someone's question, it was explained that Building Operations picks up the "broken glass" boxes, not Environmental Health and Safety.

7. Spring 1999 Safety Seminars

• Lenny has updated the Safety Seminar Series list on the Safety Committee web site. It can be found at: http://www-safety.deas.harvard.edu/services/seminars.html. Lenny handed out copies of posters to everyone so that they could be posted in all the labs to advertise the seminars.
• For First Aid and CPR training, people will need to sign up in advance via the registration web page. If you register, you are obligated to attend since Harvard pays for it.
• Eric Mazur's presentation on Laser Safety will be video taped. We hope to make a multimedia online training presentation with it.

8. Old Business - none

9. New Business - none

Next Meeting: Wednesday, April 14, 1999, 12:00 Noontime, Pierce 100F