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Department of Plant and Soil Sciences Laboratory Safety Committee Meeting Minutes |
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Spring 2000 March 15, 2000 Attendees: Gerald Hendricks, Allan Shapiro, Karen Gartley, Yuji Arai, Doug Ware, Robin Elliott, and Lucille Short. Absent:. Caroline Golt. The meeting was called to order by Gerald Hendricks at 1:10. Order of Discussion: Jerry welcomed new Salaried Staff member Lucille Short who will be taking notes for the meetings and keeping the departmental copies of the certificates of training. Suggestions for Safety Posters were solicited. Possible topics were Lyme Disease, Water/Outdoor Safety, Pesticide usage in Greenhouse/allergies, and lawn chemicals. Concerns regarding the responsibility for equipment in the 307 Worrilow lab were discussed in the last Safety Committee meeting. Since that time, the concerns were brought before the Ag Administrative Group Meeting. A College-wide committee has been authorized to oversee all shared teaching equipment and analytical labs with regard to expenses and responsibility. All lab signs have been posted and installed. There are three additional rooms that need these signs (110, 212, and 306 Worrilow). When 306 equipment is moved to 208 Worrilow, appropriate signage must be posted. Contact has been made with Hough-Goldstein in Entomology regarding assignment of responsibility of the Greenhouse Cold Room. She is looking for someone to do this. Caroline Golt will take responsibility for 121 Worrilow and Larry Cogburn will take care of 301 Worrilow. Water quality signs were posted at the water fountains. The City of Newark has indicated that the pH is acceptable. The University will also resample the water in the near future. The Safety Audit showed that the Department is in good shape. The most commonly noticed exception was eye safety protection. It was noted that there was a recent laboratory incident where the use of safety glasses was a critical factor. It is time for our Annual Fire Drill. It was the consensus to do all buildings, the Farm House, as well as Townsend and Worrilow at the same time. To successfully complete the drill, at least six people are needed to do the follow up check&emdash;one person on each floor of each building. The alarm must be heard in each room of each building and all people must be evacuated. A memo form is on the OHS Web page which can be used when fire drills are held. The date set for the fire drill is Tuesday, April 18, at 9 AM. Lab Inspections are done 4 times a year. Once by Kelly Morgan, OHS, once by the Safety Committee, and 2 self-inspections. Assignments for Safety Committee inspections are as follows: Kelley
Morgan 101,
110,/108, 112 Karen
Gartley 105,
201,/204, 212 Caroline
Golt 304, 306,
307 Yuji
Arai 205,
216 Doug
Ware 125, 210,
214/ 215 Allan
Shapiro 302 Lucille
Short Townsend Jerry
Hendricks 150, 151
TNS It is beneficial to have as many people who work in the lab present as possible including graduate and other students, research assistants, and faculty. These inspections can be arranged by the assigned person and completed by April 15. Robin Elliott provided several observations: Safety posters are posted in the bathrooms by the mirrors at the sinks. At first this was very effective. Over time however, the effectiveness has worn off. Varying the location of the posting from time to time would help to provide awareness. The audit process of enforcement was reviewed. A violation must be corrected within a specified number of days. If this does not occur, a written plan to correct the situation must be submitted. If the violation remains uncorrected, removal from the lab will be enforced. Kelly will be doing these evaluations with the individual lab directors. It is time for the driver's license audit. This has been completed by our department. The EPA inspection was mainly in the Engineering and Chemistry labs. There was positive feedback from those doing the inspection and no citations of violations were given. OHS interprets this to mean that the University's program is working the way it should. During the exit interview, U of D was reported to be the best of six universities they had reviewed. They took the waste labels and poster as examples to show to others. The Lab Management program is not the same as Chemical Redistribution Program. This is an on-line program provides a way to keep track of chemicals, list of personnel with access, training of personnel, emergency contacts, and safety equipment. The access is restricted by the lab director and definitely would not go outside UD. Comments on this program are welcome while this is being developed. The next meeting will be held at 1 PM on Wednesday, June 7, location to be announced. The meeting was adjourned at 2:15 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Lucille Short |
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