DCHAS-L Discussion List Archive
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:49:18 -0400
Reply-To: Don Wanamaker <dwanamaker**At_Symbol_Here**emlweb.com>
Sender: DCHAS-L Discussion List <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU>
From: Don Wanamaker <dwanamaker**At_Symbol_Here**EMLWEB.COM>
Organization: Environmental Management, Ltd.
Subject: Re: Emergency Action Plan for science labs
Eric/Kathleen,
Wouldn't the Uninterupted Power Supply as described be excluded from
compliance with Community Right To Know requirements since the batteries are
consumer products and/or articles as defined by OSHA? This question comes
up often for quantities above certain thresholds and becomes very onerous if
the local jurisdiction also requires a Risk Management Plan if over that
threshold quantity. If there's no risk to the community if one of these
batteries leaked, why not exclude it from CRTK reporting if, in fact, the
batteries meet either definition?
djw
Don Wanamaker
Environmental Management, Ltd.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Eric Clark"
To:
Sent: Monday, July 12, 2010 12:01 PM
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Emergency Action Plan for science labs
Kathleen,
Most emergency power generators typically don't service the entire building,
just the critical systems, and those are the ones with the red plugs or
otherwise hard-wired into the building grid. Even that might not suffice
for your needs, a typical emergency power generator requires 6 or 7 seconds
before it actually restores power. But as we all know, that kind of power
interruption can disrupt hundreds of sensitive automated laboratory analyses
that took hours to set up. As Arnold would say: Beeeg Problem (especially
if you have insufficient samples for re-runs!).
That's where the Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) comes in. It's basically
a bank of several dozen continually-charging car batteries that will provide
sufficient continuous AC power for 10 - 15 seconds to ultra-critical systems
until the emergency power generator kicks in. And there are no moving
parts. There are lots of different kinds out there. We happen to use the
Eaton Powerware 9390 - actually two of them, set up side by side.
One more thing about the UPS. Don't forget to report the lead and sulfuric
acid on the annual Community Right To Know forms AND tell the local fire
department about them and show them where they are!
Eric
Eric Clark, MS, CCHO, CHMM
Safety & Compliance Officer
Los Angeles County Public Health Laboratory
>>> "Schmidt-Nebril, Kathleen" 7/8/2010 5:34 PM >>>
My university recently was hit with a four day power outage due to severe
storms. Our science building is recently new and has a back up generator
however none of the main lab instruments or equipment were backed up to it.
Hoods, lights and ventilation were. In the end we are looking at a huge
insurance claim and are now trying to prepare an action plan for each of
our labs in the event we go through something like this again. I am the CHO
for the department and was asked to put this together. Does anyone know
what OSHA standard, if any, I should be looking at for this? They want to
incorporate a "what to do" list for example if none of the scientists were
around someone from maintenance could follow it to turn off sensitive
equipment in our absence. My thought on that is would we need to train and
document anyone who might have to respond and use our action list?
Kathleen
Previous post | Top of Page | Next post
