DCHAS-L Archives, Apr 12 2013 - Re: [DCHAS-L] Overnight reaction form / Working alone situations in academic laboratories

Olivier,

At a previous institution, we had labs register on a Qualtrix or other survey software when they were running unattended. When the "survey" was submitted, a list of people in EHS and security received an email from the software letting them know that "lab xyz" was running unattended. The survey consisted of a name, room number, PI, 24 hour contact phone number, reaction duration, and reaction hazards.

When a building alarm went off or if there was an interruption in utilities, we could easily check to see what was registered to run overnight. We used this data numerous times for responses =96 but mainly utility failures and hood/gas alarms.

To make it easy for labs to remember, I took the extremely long survey URL and ran it though a service like "tiny url" to make it something easy like "abcunattendedlab.com". I then gave all of the research labs little labels to stick on their computer monitors to act as reminders.

For working alone, we were in a situation where after hours employees had to sign in with building security. The security personnel made rounds every 15-30 minutes and were trained to check in on labs where people had signed in to work. That is not feasible for most universities where there is not dedicated security in every building. We also made sure to address in trainings that the researcher should always let someone else in the building know and we even went so far to arrange PI check calls every 15-30 minutes for labs running hazardous procedures where someone would have to be there alone.

Brandon S. Chance, M.S., CCHO

Program Manager, Chemical Safety

Environmental Health and Safety

Princeton University

262 Alexander Street

Princeton, NJ 08540

609-258-7882 (office)

609-955-1289 (mobile)

609-258-1804 (fax)

From: Leogane Olivier <o.leogane**At_Symbol_Here**UMONTREAL.CA>
Reply-To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU>
Date: Friday, April 12, 2013 10:37 AM
To: "DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU" <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU>
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Overnight reaction form / Working alone situations in academic laboratories

Hi group,

I have 2 questions for those working in academic laboratories.

1. Have you ever experienced any situations where an overnight reaction form

has been precious for the emergency response ?

2. Another common practice in academic research and even more at risk, is working alone in the laboratory.

Even if it is strongly discouraged, it is part of the academic culture. I am trying to implement a new system

with removable stickers to at least inform people outside the lab (security, etc…) that someone is running

experience alone in the lab. So I would like to receive some feedbacks, sharing experience on how

people manage this situation.

Thanks for any help on this.

Have a good day

__________________________________________

Olivier LEOGANE, Ph.D,

EHS officer, Chemical safety

University of Montreal

Office F-505 - Roger Gaudry Building

Phone : (514)343-6111 ext 2824
Email : o.leogane**At_Symbol_Here**umontreal.ca

Webpage: http://www.dps.umontreal.ca/sante-securite/risques-chimiques/

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