Sonoma State University

Chemical Safety Committee Meeting Minutes August 31, 2021

Minutes

Present: Chris Angle, Christy Gorman, Shannon Edwards, Stephanie Thibault, Kandis Gilmore, Ryan Brown, Ryan Grumich Shannon Edwards, Ruth LeBlanc, Sujan Bhattarai, Shahram Marivani, Dan Crocker, Philip Mooney, Monica Lares

  1. Welcome/Team Check-In
  2. Reminders
    1. Inspections
      1. Self-inspections- Christy reminded everyone that Annual Inspections are coming around again. The RSS team will be doing some configurations in the next week so, if everyone can kindly hold off on doing your self-inspections for the next week, that would be great. Other campus departments are being added as users to RSS, like Performing Arts. For the Fall semester EHS inspections, Art, Geology, Physics, and Engineering are on the schedule. Christy will contact individually to get that going. Timeline to start: October. If any conflicts arise or you want EHS to inspect sooner, let us know.
      2. Completing/resolving observations- Team was given input for when resolving observation within inspection reports: Be sure to respond with complete descriptive, sentences and add pictures and work order numbers if applicable.
    2. Chemical Storage
      1. Chemical cabinets, Secondary storage, & Expired chemicals-

Chris reminded team about secondary storage. Advised to use tray if cabinets are not chemical-grade cabinets (or don’t contain a lip). He also reminded the team to discard expired chemicals and chemicals that are 10+ years old. RSS Chemicals will prompt expiration dates for chemicals and alerts users.

  1. Peroxide forming chemicals-

Ruth advised that EH&S gets charged for expired, unstable chemicals. Thus, any chemicals that need stabilizing moving forward will be charged to the responsible department(s). She reminded the team that excess chemicals take up space and cost money for disposal. EH&S is happy to get rid of chemicals.

Chris reminded team about checking for peroxide formers, and dates need to be written with ppm reading. Our third-party collector and the disposal facility checks the date(s) on those chemicals.

Chris also noted that labeling is improving by all.  

  1. MSDS online-

Christy reminded team that MSDS online is the go-to for our campus Safety Data Sheets. Be sure to keep cross checking when purchasing new chemicals and keep sending those SDSs to EHS. If you can’t find it on MSDS online and you don’t have a copy of the SDS, just let us know. We can request one from MSDS online and have them add it to our campus e-binder. It was advised that paper-based binders not be kept due to the amount of work and time for upkeep. Paper-based binders need to be reviewed and updated with the latest versions of SDS. MSDS online does the review automatically. QR code posters are available if you need them.

Ruth reported that the Fire Marshall inspection resulted in observations about MSDS and physical binders. She reiterated the concern with paper-based binders.

  1. RSS
    1. Q3 Metrics- Third quarter metrics were presented. 93% overall lab safety compliance. 2,334 total chemical containers entered into inventory. 31% increase in platform usage (39 total campus users).
    2. RSS Training Academy- Christy reminded team that RSS provides free periodic live webinar training on all of their modules. Link to training registration page- https://riskandsafety.com/academy-trainings
  2. Announcements/Updates
    1. Chemical Hygiene Plan – annual review in progress
  3. New Business from members/Discussion
    1. Ryan Brown asked if the 2 oxygen sensors in Salazar were sufficient. Ruth advised that based on the size of the rooms that should be okay but mentioned that calibration requirements for the sensors would need to be maintained.