> >And also: yes, you should treat baseball caps, cowboy hats, beanies, and all non-PPE hats the same. They don't need to be in the lab (and yes, I would say that to a CEO or CSO, too).

That reminds me of a story an EHS colleague told me about a visit from President of the United States to one of the labs at their institution for a photo op. The EHS professional had tried to impress on the Univiersity’s organizer of the visit the importance of eye protection in the lab for Everyone and the response was “no way” were the visitor be required to do that.

POTUS asked for lab glasses before entering the lab and received them. (Perhaps someone one his staff thought that they were a good idea.) Anyway, sometimes leadership has to step up to the plate on safety issues; sometimes that involves high end visitors; other times it falls to a first year graduate student who happens to be a TA.

Perhaps the community can assist with this by further developing the idea of “peer-keeping” described at
https://cen.acs.org/safety/lab-safety/Reactions-Peer-keeping-should-accompany/100/i19

"Safety peer keeping, often an awkward and challenging process, can stop a near miss from turning into a serious potential injury or life-threatening incident. Peer keeping is the process of attentively observing and tactfully responding to an action or condition that can impact one’s safety or the safety of coworkers."

FWIW, I have a similar concern to the one raised about cowboy hats to neckties in laboratories. I’m old enough to have been around in the days when they were de rigeur for male faculty and remember stained neckties various faculty keptin their offices to switch into for their next visit to the lab...

- Ralph

Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
ralph**At_Symbol_Here**rstuartcih.org

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