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Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2009 08:03:27 -0400
Reply-To: List Moderator <ecgrants**At_Symbol_Here**UVM.EDU>
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From: List Moderator <ecgrants**At_Symbol_Here**UVM.EDU>
Subject: Proactive Lab Safety in the News
Two news stories about about lab safety found by
google...
=46rom Brown University
Violations found in LiSci
labs
Sydney Ember
Senior Staff
Writer
Published: Tuesday, September 15,
2009
Hazardous waste management inspections
conducted in Sidney Frank Hall this summer uncovered violations in 10
biology and neuroscience laboratories, according to an Office of
Environmental Health and Safety report, a copy of which was obtained by
The Herald.
The labs were found to be in breach
of container-management issues including improperly labeling waste
depositories, displaying open hazardous waste containers, using
inappropriate storage vessels, blocking laboratory egress and storing
incompatible materials together.
The Office of
Environmental Health and Safety conducts twice-yearly inspections of all
research facilities, allowing labs to correct violations within a
one-week time frame. But Henry Huppert, the University=92s environmental
compliance officer, said some labs do not immediately resolve violations
despite repeated citations.
=93Sometimes, it
doesn=92t get communicated down to the lab staff,=94 Huppert said. =93Some
people are right on it, and some people
delay.=94
The June report =97 a joint effort
led by Huppert and Director of Environmental Health and Safety Stephen
Morin =97 was released less than a year after similar inspections at the
University of California, Los Angeles failed to prevent a lab accident
that resulted in the death of a research assistant. The lab where the
accident occurred did not undertake the recommended corrective
actions.
Despite examining reports from the
UCLA accident =97 which occurred after similar inspections =97 Morin
said his office has not changed its inspection process. =93We=92re still
looking at that report,=94 he said. =93We convinced ourselves that we=92re
okay with that, but it really comes down to practicing safe
science.=94
(story continues on web
site)
===
=46rom Salt Lake
City, Utah
Disaster
drill involves hundreds
By Jewel Punzalan Allen
For
the Deseret News
Published: Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009 12:29
a.m. MDT
TOOELE =97 Rick Spencer
saw his share of emergencies as athletic trainer at Salt Lake City's
Highland High School =97 but never gas inhalation.
On
Wednesday, Spencer gave first aid to "victims" of a "lab explosion" at
Tooele High School as part of the annual Chemical Stockpile Emergency
Preparedness Program drill.
Greg Mahall,
public-affairs chief of the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency, said
the high school was one of three Tooele locations that staged mock
drills, an annual operation which involved more than 600 people and
several agencies from Tooele, Salt Lake and Utah
counties.
In one
morning, three mock disasters struck Tooele simultaneously: A truck
crashed into a vehicle carrying mustard agent, resulting in fire, the
scattering of cattle, and a town's evacuation; the county experienced a
5.5 magnitude earthquake; and the high-school lab blew
up.
(story continues
on web site)
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