The Most Important Lab Safety Rule  - The Results

Lab safety programs consist of many important elements such as the new employee safety orientation, the safety manual, the safety committee, and the rules agreement.  The best programs involve hazard determination and risk assessment.  There are 33 on LSI’s Lab Safety Program Review Form (available on request).

Over the last six decades, LSI has been a strong advocate for lab safety based on hazard determination and risk assessment.  We express it in our four simple questions: What are the hazards?  What can go wrong?  What do you need to do to be prepared? And, what are the protective facilities, prudent practices, and personal protective equipment needed to minimize the risk?  

You can get these four questions as a free poster on the LSI website: https://www.labsafety.org/product-category/posters.

You might say that this makes LSI the grandfather of RAMP:  Recognize Hazards, Assess Risk, Minimize & Manage Hazards, and Prepare for Emergencies.   Sounds very familiar!

Unfortunately, some people (both in the lab and in society in general) are not inclined to follow the rules (SOPs).  They prefer what LSI calls the “Frank Sinatra Method” … I do it “My Way”.

This raises an interesting question.  Are there any lab rules (SOPs) that you feel so strongly about that if there was someone who did not want to follow them, you don’t want that person in your lab.  They put themselves at risk.  They put others at risk.  And, they put your organization at risk.  It’s time for “Risk Minimization”.

So, we asked the question on five internet discussion lists: Labsafety-l, DCHAS-L, Safety3, NAOSMM, and Hazwaste.  I received 50 replies and 115 suggestions.

The top five are:

1.      Wear proper PPE in the lab

2.      Wear proper clothing in the lab

3.      No food, drink, chewing gum, or applying cosmetics in the lab

4.      Don’t work alone or have a plan if you must (buddy system)

5.      Conduct a hazard analysis of lab activities

If you would like to see the entire rank ordered list, it’s available on the resources pages of the LSI website:  https://www.labsafety.org/resource  Scroll to the bottom of the page.

At the end of the day, when all the orientations, training, coaching, and mentoring are not convincing your colleague to do it “our way”, isn’t it time to have a clear discipline procedure?

Five clear disciplinary steps: (inform in writing, maintain a record, share with HR)

1.      This needs to be our final mentoring/coaching session on this policy

2.      This is an official verbal warning

3.      This is an official written warning – the colleague will sign a statement indicating that he/she understands the rule (SOP).

4.      A paid decision making leave of absence – one day off to consider whether to either (a) resign or (b) return to work and sign a statement acknowledging that if the rule (SOP) is violated again that they will be terminated.

5.      Termination

After all, isn’t termination an integral and important part of “Risk Management”.