Debbie,
       in general in our organisation we consider exposure incidents or
the sub orbital placement of buildings lag indicators. While very
useful, especially if you apply as a hierarchy of incidents, they are
not always a good indicator of cultural change or effective at
highlighting areas requiring change. As always it is the goal of any
safety improvement system to make the changes before there is an
incident.

To help promote culture change and discussion we have introduced a
safety checklist to our laboratories which is done internally by
departments once a month and used as a metric for compliance to good
safety practice. We encourage different staff to do the checklist each
month (always in pairs) and to contribute to the discussions on the
evidence guide  / training package associated with the checklist. The
list itself is kept to 25 questions to ensure that it does not become a
burden and it is reviewed every 12 months to keep it fresh and to
introduce new ideas/issues as they arise. Every sites results are
visible globally and we intentionally do set pass or fail points.

We have found that the numbers of recurring issues arising from the
checklist (thing like improperly labelled chemicals, obstructed safety
showers, etc) actually give us a reasonable indication as to the
progress of our safety culture. Of course the whole thing is integrated
with good training processes and tools with the constant involvement of
facility representatives.

Regards

Dr Eric Wilkes 
Global Manager Analytical Services 
Best Practice and Performance 
Fosters Group Ltd 

ph:     03 9420 6594 or int: 61 3 9420 6594
mob:  0408 668 718 or int: 61 408 668 718 
Fax:   03 9420 6919 or int: 61 3 9420 6919 


-----Original Message-----
From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of
Debbie M. Decker
Sent: Thursday, 11 December 2008 8:34 AM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Measuring chemical safety program effectiveness

Some musings, in advance of my chemical safety committee meeting........

How do I measure if the campus chemical and laboratory safety program is
_really_ effective?  Lack of exposure incidents?  Lack of buildings in
low earth orbit ?

I train a lot of people and we don't appear to have too many exposure
incidents and the chemistry building hasn't been launched into low earth
orbit - is that an "effective program?"

I'm really interested in how ya'll think about this.

Thanks!

Debbie
--------------------

Debbie Decker

EH&S UCDavis

(530)754-7964

FAX (530)752-4527

dmdecker**At_Symbol_Here**ucdavis.edu

Co-Conspirator to Make the World A

Better Place -- Visit www.HeroicStories.com and join the conspiracy


Birkett's hypothesis: "Any chemical reaction

that proceeds smoothly under normal conditions,

can proceed violently in the presence of an idiot."

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