Meeting Minutes - DEAS/Physics Department Safety

Safety Committee Meeting - 12:00noon - 1:00pm, Wednesday, May 13,

1998

1. Video - "Handling LN2"

The meeting was opened with the viewing of the instructional video

"Handling LN2". Of those present, half said they use LN2 and they do

not use face shields. Henry commented that he had never heard of

injuries caused by LN2 in the eyes. Despite this, anyone handling

LN2 should wear goggles/safety glasses and gloves (not latex!) to

prevent burns.

2. Follow-Up Lab Inspection Reports:

a) Lyman Labs:

123: all chemicals which were sitting out have been placed in

bottles and taken care of. 126: vacuum pump is not being used; sign

has been changed.

128: ground fault protection for the electrical outlet above sink

has been taken care of.

131: refrigerators are labeled.

134: brewing coffee in the lab needs to stop. Coffee maker must be

removed. Lenny reminded everyone not to bring food/drinks into lab

areas. Inspectors finding signs of drinks or food will cite us.

b) McKay Labs:

1st Floor: No representative was present at the meeting. This is a

recurring problem.

3rd Floor: in 328-330, a tube on the floor has been covered; in 322,

gas cylinder has been moved.

3. Safety Seminar Series Update - (Lenny)

Lenny reported that the Safety Seminar series is over.

Fire drills and fire extinguisher training will happen in June as

follows (Ed Jackson will send out reminders):

June 2nd - Pierce, Cruft, Jefferson, Lyman

June 9th - McKay, ESL

In cases where someone needs a fire extinguisher installed, such as

Hoffman G28, Henry explained that the Harvard Fire Group can provide

this.

4. Safety Training - Are We Doing It Right?

Lenny addressed the issue of poor attendance at the seminars by

asking whether what we do is sufficient. With only one person

attending the Compressed Gas Seminar and noone attending the

Shipping Hazmats Seminar, Chemical Safety and Radiation Safety Talks,

it is a serious concern that we may not be reaching everyone. Over

400 people have attended the seminars since 1985. Are we

experiencing a cyclical dip because our energy for safety related

concerns has run out? Lenny suggested that we need to do something

different to increase our current attendance.

If some people are missing their training, why does Harvard have so

few accidents?

- Some suggest because we have smart students.

- Lab workers may be getting on-the-job training from experienced

co-workers. (This goes only so far. The training would be too

specific and narrow.)

In any case, these possible factors cannot be relied upon to create

trained staff and students. In fact, in the latter case, younger

inexperienced lab workers may actually learn bad habits from

experienced co-workers who have come to practice lax safety

procedures.

Possible solutions? The following suggestions were offered:

- Henry suggested that it may only appear that Harvard has suffered

no ill-effects from poor safety training. Poor safety procedures may

be creating unseen long-term hazards. OSHA is very concerned about

this, and Harvard can expect to be more closely scrutinized. Every

incoming student needs safety training.

- Dr. Gold suggested that training taught by experienced peers would

be more effective. Lectures by professors or supervisors have a feel

of bureaucracy and may not be taken as seriously as a more "real"

peer training session that could include instructors who have

experienced accidents themselves.

- Training sessions need to be as efficient and concise as possible

to maintain interest. We also need to emphasize the retraining of

faculty as well.

- Individual policing to make sure everyone complies. Perhaps we

could install some sort of automatic checks to make sure a person has

been trained.

- Announce training sessions at lab meetings where everyone is

present. n It would be hard to enforce a mandatory training

requirement prior to working.

- Periodic "Training Day" - all work stops, all get trained. Can be

planned for in advance. Faculty would need to support this. Others

felt this idea might be too bureaucratic.

- LISTS: Peter Pershan felt that a list should be developed that

would include all current research staff and students. This list

could be used to define training requirements. Steve Wofsy stated

that if he had an up-to-date list of the training sessions that the

people in his group attended, he would make certain that any lack of

training would be rectified. Some felt one central list of trained

people would be unmanageable; however, it was suggested that a PC be

purchased just for this purpose. One or several database(s) could be

managed by an intern or undergraduate.

Lenny stated he would talk to Dr. Gold about the feasibility of

developing such lists. He will report back to the committee in

October 1998.

5. Disposal of Hazardous Waste Training: Update - (Lenny)

We are basically in good shape. Only four people have not taken the

training. The yearly certification of some of those who have taken

the online training has run out. They need to retake the refresher.

6. Report from Environmental Health and Safety - (Peter

Bochnak/Henry Littleboy)

Chemistry evacuation: Henry commented on the recent chemistry

evacuation. The label on the bottle was blown away when the bottle

exploded, and the Fire Dept. could not quickly determine the contents

of the bottle. Apparently the Fire Dept. demands to see an MSDS

sheet and labeled container. Because the Fire Dept. could not find

the bottle label, they prevented the people involved in the accident

from leaving for the hospital. They were detained for 30 minutes.

We are working very closely with the Fire Department to settle this

issue. Henry stated strongly that this situation must be resolved.

7. Old Business

Mass General Hospital was inspected recently by EPA. People in labs

had to answer questions about safety procedures. Our workers need to

be prepared to do the same. We should review the material on the

green posters-apparently they focused on that. They looked at every

bottle and took pictures of lab areas.

8. New Business:

NEXT MEETING: Wednesday, June 10, 1998 at 12:00 noon

Location: possibly Legal Sea Food