| Fall
2003 December 10, 2003
PLANT AND SOIL SCIENCES
SAFETY COMMITTEE MEETING
MINUTES
Attendees: Wallace Pill, Ted Peltier, Leslie York-Hubbard,
Robin Elliott, Caroline Golt, Maria Pautler, Cindy Barnett and Jerry
Hendricks.
The minutes were
taken by Cindy Barnett.
The meeting was called to order at 1:35 PM.
Introductions and
description of responsibilities were made to new/replacement committee
members.
The mission of the safety committee is to carry out polices and
act as a resource for everyone. Policies and most forms are
available
on
the webpage. Responsibilities of the committee include investigating
injuries and conducting lab inspections in the Spring.
The committee meets 4 times a year and the next meeting will
be scheduled for February 2004.
Old Business
Outstanding Items
There are several Entomology labs in Townsend with no emergency contact
cards filled out. Dr. Kyle is the Entomology safety Chair and he is
currently
out
of the
country. Signs are being created by the lock shop to put up
in 304 Worrilow for the tripping hazard. This has been reported to
facilities.
Activities
in 304 Worrilow are going to stop at the end of December. We
don’t
know the long term future of the lab. The showers were not
inspected and biological stickers are still needed for the
hood. Lab 302 needs
to have its showers inspected and also needs a sticker to designate
it as a bio hood. Leslie will take a look at this. Lab 125
needs a hood
sticker as well. The light outside the library is still out.
The “owner” of the storage cabinet
in the Townsend stairwell is still unknown. Caroline said that
Bill Saylor has taken it over. It will have to be
moved. There are no emergency cards in labs 216,
218 and 222. There is an emergency
card in 221 but it’s not filled out. Ceiling tiles have
yet to be fixed. Amy Broadhurst is putting in a request for
a phone in 204.
216 Worrilow does not have a spill kit, Yan Jin is in the process
of getting one. One spill kit per group is mandatory. The University
policy
states that litter can be used for various spills. $80.00 is
the initial cost of a spill kit, but the replacements are free.
They can be purchased
using UDMART. Leslie recommended that you can make your own
up if you would rather – just have one. Farmhouse – because
of the threat of storm Isabel the leaks were all fixed. There
is no
evacuation
plan in effect for the farmhouse or Worrilow. Technically by
code, one is not required but we encourage one to be implemented.
The inspection cards for the fire extinguishers are full and
the custodians stopped writing on them. Jerry has informed
Bernie that
new cards are
needed. Bernie was also informed that the custodians never
told anyone that the cards were all filled out. Robin said
that they
are now
in the process of having the custodians fill out the cards
and sending them
to us. These cards are good for a couple of years. During the
last power failure it was determined that the natural light
in Worrilow
is not enough – back
up lights are needed. Caroline bought up the issue of the lack of the
light and the stairway. The generator doesn’t kick on
for a couple of minutes leaving the areas too dark.
New Business
New graduate training – 8 new students and 7 have completed the
training. One graduate student from last year (Adam Welchel) is not in
compliance – his wife just had a baby.
Workplace chemical
list is completed.
The new greenhouse
manager, Theresa Holton, now reports
to Dr. Sparks so the greenhouses now falls under our committee. The
greenhouse has since undergone several inspections, including one by
Stephen McReynolds of the Delaware Dept.
of
Agriculture. He made
several
recommendations.
1). The chemical inventory was old and should be reduced. Notices
were sent out to everyone to claim those they wanted saved. The rest
has
been disposed as waste. 2). All greenhouse personnel should receive
Worker Protection Safety training.
Susan
Whitney agreed to provide it through her grad students. Currently
no one is
certified to apply pesticides, so Theresa has hired a contractor, Mike
Leventry from Longwood Gardens to conduct IPM and to spray when necessary.
Rodney Dempsey will be handling the spraying in the future. In an internal
inspection, the old greenhouse was found to contain much flaking
paint that was suspected to be lead based. The chipping
paint
is both exterior
and
interior. Sharon Sperber confirmed that the paint does contain lead.
Obtained an initial estimate of at least $20,000
to have it repainted. Julie Burton has agreed to address the problem.
Leslie bought up the
fact that when debris falls onto peoples clothing or shoes they can
bring
this hazard home with them to their kids, pets, etc. No warning signs
are posted and people are working in this area. Dr. Pill bought up
the fact that the electrical boxes are rusted through and also are
not GFI
protected.
There are still
a lot of bugs in the centralized chemical inventory system – still
working on it.
This year we have
had an unusual number or thefts – 2
laptops, 2 LCD projectors and 2 cameras. There have also been reported
incidents of graffiti on
employee’s belongings.
Due to these incidents, digital video cameras are going to be
considered for the hallways.
A new emergency
plans needs to be developed.
During the
last storm we found out our current plan could use some revisions.
During storm Isabel the plastic greenhouse collapsed.
Right-To-Know
training:
at first there were complaints that it was too easy – now
there is concern about trick questions. We offer some first
aid training
at a reasonable cost.
Accidents
Kathy Fleischut had a lower back injury. Over at the DBI office she
was carrying 2 one gallon containers of punch for a meeting and her
back gave out.
An Academic program
Review was conducted the past few days to evaluate the campus safety
program. Three University Safety Directors and two internal members,
Jerry Hendricks and Philip Roche evaluated the strengths and weaknesses
of the program. A report will be generated by the end of January.
The committee received uniform praise of the safety program
and of Robin’s
leadership style.
A picture of the
committee members was taken.
Meeting adjourned at 1:50 PM.
Respectively submitted by Cindy Barnett.
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