Chemical Safety Committee Meeting Minutes March 27, 2020

Committee
: 
Chemical Safety
Meeting Date
: 
Friday, March 27, 2020

 

Participants:

EH&S- Ruth LeBlanc, Chris Angle, Christy Gorman

SST- Stephanie Thibault, Sujan Bhatterai, Ryan Brown, Carmen Works, Phillip Mooney, Kandis Gilmore, Shahram Marivani, Roger Mamer

SAH- Aimee Graham, Shannon Edwards

The Chemical Safety Committee met and discussed the items captured in the published agenda sequentially. The meeting was conducted utilizing Zoom as a platform due to mandatory telecommuting constraints. Below is a summary of the meeting discussion: 

  1. Recap of the CSU Audit findings

    1. Student training- EHS has developed training protocol for every student that needs to wear PPE, outlining all requirements

    2. Self-inspections- EHS needs a comprehensive list of labs from each department, differentiating academic from research

    3. Ruth queried the group to determine how many internal inspections were identifying faults

      1. Stephanie commented that lab techs only do academic labs, and faculty does research labs. They can’t get good accountability on the process from faculty.

      2. Ryan gives copies to the staff, but can not influence them to respond

      3. Shannon does not feel there is enough time or support

      4. Aimee believes that there is monthly progress but that this process will take time

      5. Ruth brought up example of deficient lab in SST addressing safety violations once EHS was preparing to shut the lab down, offered to provide oversight from EHS for training or curtesy inspections whenever requested

  2. Eye-wash & Safety showers 

  1. Ruth reiterated that nothing can be obstructing the eyewash or safety showers, asked techs to check on which ones were not getting inspected

  2. Stephanie commented that custodial staff will sometimes obstruct safety equipment and it isn’t observed by lab techs right away. Ruth offered to address the issue with Alan Goff

  3. Kandis mentioned that facilities was putting multiple tags on the inspected items, Ruth offered to close the loop with facilities and request that they only leave on the most current and the one previous

  4. Aimee asked if a bulletin board mounted behind the safety equipment was acceptable, Ruth replied that as long as it was permanent and not capable of resting against the infrastructure it was compliant

  1. Hazardous Materials Procurement 

  1. EHS has sent updated procedures for procurement to Dave Crozier, cautioned departments that it would be more stringent, with the intent of minimizing the most toxic or dangerous materials in a progressive manner

  2. Carmen wanted to ensure that perchlorate solvents with a stabilizer were still an option. Ruth cautioned that a recent perchlorate was removed from the campus at a great expense, and gave guidance to include the use of perchlorates in the Project Hazard Analysis. Ruth also cautioned to be cognizant of expiration dates, departments will get charged for dangerous substance stabilization and removal

  1. Standard Operating Procedures/Project Hazard Analysis

  1. PHA procedures will replace the need for SOPs specific to each project, if done correctly

  1. Chemical inventories 

  1. A chemical inventory is needed for each room in a department, labs as well as offices if chemicals are stored there

  2. Stephanie mentioned that the techs begin that effort during the summer, however faculty often do not follow up. Requested EH&S to attend faculty meetings to address the requirement. Ruth acknowledged

  3. Carmen presented a concern that while faculty was limited in office hours, conducting inventories would not be a priority compared to research goals. Ruth embellished the fact that these were regulatory and permit driven requirements, and a priority of the President

  4. Christy mentioned that the CHP would get easier as implementation progressed

  5. Stephanie asked if safety inspection could continue during campus shut down, Ruth responded affirmatively. She was also concerned about faculty not prioritizing safety inspections while time is limited, Ruth said she could help influence faculty

  1. Labeling and storage of Hazmat 

  1. Shannon requested EHS to attend faculty meeting to address labeling

  2. Sujan was concerned about the constraint of leaving chemicals in fume hood now that the campus has been closed. Ruth agreed to reach out Julie to address senior projects and general lab chemicals produced by students. Is it time to process them as waste? 

  3. Stephanie mentioned that lab techs could chip away at processing student chemicals as waste during times they were at campus

  4. Chris is going to check with Clean Harbors to verify May 19th lab pack. Chris can keep appointments with departments to collect waste once the date is confirmed

  1. Open Discussion

  1. Stephanie is concerned about the backup generator for Darwin, is the backup  to the backup generator still in place while the primary one is being rebuilt? Ruth will reach out to Julie and Dana to verify.Sujan asked for the status of a fume hood that is down, Ruth asked him to send her an email and she would follow up with Dana

  2. Stephanie mentioned that dry ice is being delivered to Darwin, police can let faculty or staff in to obtain dry ice in the event of a thaw