EHS-MS Working Committee Meeting Notes

Wednesday July 25, 2012

10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

46-3015

Attendees:EHS Coordinators – John Fucillo, Barbara Engel, Dan Herrick, Jennifer Lynn, Nancy Schrock, Ann Marie Willer, Ed Lau, Catherine Fiore and Steven Wetzel; EHS Reps – Barbara Karampalas, Sophie Poizeau, Mary Lindstrom; EHS Office – Lou DiBerardinis, Mitch Galanek, Hans Richter, Gerry Fallon, Bob Edwards, Joe MacLeod, Maureen Ingaharro, Mike Labosky, Jessica Van and Laurie Veal; Other – Andrew Kalil (LL), Vesna Zaccheo (Audit), Linda Bradford (DoF Operation Center)

  1. Working Alone Policy – Next Steps(Lou DiBerardinis)(20 min)
  1. Adopted as is by Academic Council
  2. Questions whether goes far enough but passed
  3. Living document via the Guiding Principles – Adding examples
  4. Getting message out to PIs & Labs
  5. Just tell them – a memo or emaildirective from
  6. EHS office
  7. Deans/Provost
  8. President
  9. Letter from Claude Canizares & Bill to DLCs – focused letter plus an email with attachment – follow same model
  10. Directly from Academic Council
  11. EHS rep to tell their labs
  12. Dept. level EHS Committees
  13. Road shows to Dept, Coord, Reps, PIs
  14. Faculty meetings – don’t announce that EHS is coming
  15. Supplement with email/letter
  16. Article in Faculty Newsletter
  17. Dept. Newsletter when used
  18. Letter to Dept. heads to tell PI – mention in letter that DLC EHS Coordinator to help implement in the lab
  19. Start with Dept. Head letter and then cascade to other events
  20. Hear from top down, but work from multiple levels and do more than once
  21. Dept. website
  22. Infinite Corridor – signage on display
  23. Post on doors to labs
  24. Implementation might be different in non-laboratory settings – DSL & DoF
  25. Annual training materials – add to these
  26. TheTech – add a monthly EHSitem
  27. EHS-MS Communication team should look at this
  28. Add to MIT Policy & Procedures Manual – this could be a lengthy process
  29. Personnel Policy Manual
  30. Student Handbook
  31. Graduate Student Association – Publication
  32. PPE process worked well – work through locally and sign off on it. Define the specifics of what “Working Alone” will mean in the DLC and its various labs
  33. Then submit to Coord and EHS after PI signs
  34. “I am aware of this policy” – MIT lawyers are reluctant to do this in writing
  35. Directive from Lou and Bill to Coordinators about needing to implement the policy
  36. Start with:
  37. Letter sent to PIs from Claude & Bill V.
  38. Send it out globally so it all goes out at the same time
  39. Before it happens, EHS cords & Leads need to feel comfortable with the policy.
  40. Coordinators really need to feel comfortable with the material
  41. Start with a letter to Coordinator showing the PI Letter and explaining expectations and particulars, etc. in more details
  42. September 18th Coordinator Meeting – cover more in depth
  43. Come up with some scenarios/examples to share – start that now **EHS ACTION ITEM**
  44. Coordinators and Reps come up with specific list of conditions in your labs to share at next Working Committee and EHS Coordinator / Lead Contact meetings **Working Committee Members ACTION ITEM**
  45. Think about effective methods of alerting others in labs when leaving – who is the last one in
  1. MIT Emergency Response(Mitch Galanek / Linda Bradford)(45 min)
  1. Ops Center does a good job triaging – try to flow as many calls as possible then through them
  1. People tent to use “Dial 100” because it’s an easier # to remember than “3-1500”, but there’s no voicemail when someone dials 100, so this could cause a delay in picking up the call
  2. Operations Center is a 24 Hour Operation – everything funneled through Ops Center off hours
  1. But only the emergencies triaged by them during the day
  1. Green cards not being up to date really poses a challenge, emergency contacts and hazards
  2. Having to cross-reference to other database of contacts is a lot of work
  3. Green card used by LL  shows all hazards?
  4. Post signage of when to call which #phone – make it an easy graphical approach
  5. Flip chart – some information is outdated
  6. KI has a chart that reps use & post **Jennifer Lynn ACTION ITEM** - share KI version with Working Committee
  7. Green card system info is good information
  8. Should be looked at during inspection
  9. Local lab training should include when to call which # in an emergency, etc.
  10. 3 color format sign is good – simple to see, not too cluttered
  11. Green card tells nothing about what is in the lab
  12. PI Space Reg info would be more useful if the hazards could be printed on the back of green card and folded over to face the wall in the green card frame
  13. Sensitive information on back
  14. Ops. Ctr. Can access this information when people are on the scene
  15. May need to look at the list of hazards in PI Space in order to show what’s of interest to Emergency Responders
  16. Ask IS&T if we could add hazards list to the other half of the page for Green Card **Laurie/Jess ACTION ITEM** - submit enhancement ticket request to IST about this
  17. Come back to group with samples of a lab sign
  18. Customer service center handles all non-emergencies
  19. Calling 100  goes to Police Dept who call Cambridge Fire but they don’t always call EHS & don’t always call the Ops Center for assistance
  1. MIT Culture of Safety (Mitch Galanek) (30 min)
  1. Has to start in the lab as well as being reinforced by Sr. Leadership
  2. Ask Leadership to demonstrate their commitment to safety
  3. PI’s web pages could include reference to culture of safety
  4. Add to MIT Mission Statement
  5. Have MIT S. Leadership people come on Level II Inspections (UCLA  Chancellor goes on inspections)
  6. Institute an annual required course for PIs – Live
  7. LL Annual Chemical Hygiene all group leaders have to attend
  8. Reinforce with PIs that they are responsible for leading the lab culture safety
  9. Incorporate a “continuous learning” strategy into the Culture of Safety initiative
  10. Level II Inspection Finding follow-up is hard to do to close the loop – especially when the findings are not DCR
  11. Follow up on Injury & Incident reviews
  12. Jennifer reviews injuries/incidents quarterly with her Reps
  13. After Action Reviews should result in Action Items and should be discussed in lab meetings / lab specific training
  14. Make sure something happens with the material that is generated
  15. Do a better job of documenting non-injury incidents
  16. How do we share lessons learned?
  17. For serious incidents there is a hotline
  18. Include a statement about safety in the thesis proposal and consideration
  19. Have to figure out how to make this meaningful
  20. Performance appraisal/tied to raises
  21. Focus on how much person has learned from mistake
  22. Don’t want to keep people from reporting
  23. Make sure there’s some type of stick along with the carrot – something meaningful
  24. Make people are aware of things they need to pay attention to in a Culture of Safety and provide them with tools to use –
  25. A defined list like hazard analysis
  26. Add tools and training curricula for ChemE or other disciplines on how to conduct experiments safely
  27. Continuous learning – for all, PIs, grads, undergraduates
  28. Lab Specific Training  hazard specific training
  29. How to assure hazard specific training happens before an old machine is fired up or an experiment is scaled up
  30. Look at undergraduate programs
  31. Require a 1 credit hour course for all MIT students – a seminar
  32. Make purviews of Academic Council
  33. Train the PIs
  34. Do a good job of communicating incidents
  1. Level I Inspections & QA/QC Level II(Hans Richter / Gerry Fallon)(20 min)
  2. Checklist
  3. Prefer to have the fume hoods checked weekly
  4. Issue it as a word document so DLCs can customize
  5. Establish the Frequency of “Periodic” in guidance – DLCs could check more frequently if they wish
  6. Eyewashes – physical design means testing water goes on floor
  7. DoF doesn’t do this inspection of eyewashes – on a regular basis - every 6 months?
  8. Put a bucket underneath – could be retrofitted
  9. This conflict causes issues for Reps
  10. Not part of MIT Design criteria
  11. Revisit issue of eyewashes **Inspection Team**
  12. Is cardboard secondary containment?
  13. Only if in original, intact packaging
  14. Shop around these drafts of Level I Checklist and SOP to your EHS Reps and the SOP **Working Committee Member ACTION ITEM**
  15. Determine how often “Periodic” could reasonably be done

Action Items:

Working Committee:

  • Compile a list of specific conditions in your lab to share with the group to provide more examples/details guiding principles for Working Alone Policy.
  • Pilot the Level I Checklist and SOP

EHS:

  • Compile a list of examples/scenarios for the Working Alone Policy

Inspection Team:

  • Revisit eyewash issues

Laurie/Jess:

  • Contact IS&T, in regards to Greencard update – print hazards on the other side.
  • Laurie emailed IS&T has submitted this request. 7/27/2012

Jennifer Lynn:

  • Send EHS a copy of the current KI Contact info chart
  • Jennifer has sent her version of the chart 8/2/12

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