Hi Heather,

Yes ... Life is filled with hazards: chemical, physical, biological, mechanical radiation, noise, high/lo pressure, electrical, and stress. Depending on what the Academy and you decide for your responsibilities, there will be many others who can help you.

When I send you the results of the survey we did of 100 Chemical Safety/Hygiene officers, you'll see the more than 52 areas that showed up on their job descriptions and the 21 more that might be added on since they were already doing the other stuff.

There is any important process you need to follow to end up with the right job description for you and the Academy.

I would recommend that you focus for now just on the chemical. Doing more would initially, with all due respect, be a serious mistake. ... Jim

PS. "There's more to lab safety than just labs!"

James A. Kaufman, PhD

Founder/President Emeritus

The Laboratory Safety Institute (LSI)

A Nonprofit Educational Organization for Safety in Science, Industry, and Education

192 Worcester Street, Natick, MA 01760-2252

(O) 508-647-1900 (F) 508-647-0062 (C) 508-574-6264 Skype: labsafe; 508-401-7406

jim**At_Symbol_Here**labsafety.org www.labsafety.org Teach, Learn, and Practice Science Safely

On Mon, Sep 7, 2020 at 7:42 AM Margaret Rakas <mrakas**At_Symbol_Here**smith.edu> wrote:

Hi Heather-

I think there are others who can better assist with the job description you need; I'm responding b/c a substantial part of my position is in biological safety as well as chemical safety, and since your institution carries out molecular biology research...

The American BIological Safety Association (ABSA) has webinars open to everyone on biological safety topics (for a fee, members pay less), and importantly, has safety resources and a wonderful listserv available at no charge through the website (www.absa.org). I learned so much in the area of biosafety my first few years just by reading the postings. People are very willing to share their practices, and much like this listserv, professionalism and collegiality are a must. So there's a knowledge resource for you (and others) in this area if you were unaware. Disclosure: I'm a member but not in any sort of position with the group.

Good luck and glad your institution has realized that taking on this 'side gig' takes time....

best,

Margaret

On Sun, Sep 6, 2020 at 6:51 AM Heather Zimmer <heather_zimmer**At_Symbol_Here**milton.edu> wrote:

Hello all,

I have been acting as chemical safety 'advisor' (like officer, but without responsibility to ensure compliance) at the school where I teach for the last several years. As we have dramatically increased in number of faculty, number of students taking more than one science class per year, and breadth of science courses offered (including organic chem and molecular genetics research), this job now needs to be expanded and made into a more traditional CSO position, and administration is open to discussing allocating more time from my teaching workload for this position. I created the description for what I am currently doing as 'advisor', but it would help to be able to point to other examples in remaking this into CSO. Could anyone recommend sources that could help me compose a proposed job description to share with my administration?

Thank you,

Heather Wages Zimmer

Science Department

Outreach Team

Norris House Advisor

Milton Academy

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--

Margaret A. Rakas, Ph.D.
Lab Safety & Compliance Director
Clark Science Center
413-585-3877 (p)

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