Chemical Safety Committee Meeting Minutes May 22, 2019

Committee
Chemical Safety
Meeting Date
Wednesday, May 22, 2019

In attendance:  Dean Lynn Stauffer, Julie Barnes, Tyson Hill, Ruth LeBlanc

The meeting was held with the Dean to discuss revisions needed to the Chemical Hygiene Plan for the SSU Campus.

Below are the items discussed:

Chemical Hygiene Officer:  The current CHO, Jon Fukuto, will be taking a break (sabbatical) and will not be able to serve as the CHO.  In his place, Dr. Carmen Works will be acting CHO.  

It was discussed that a representative from the EH&S Dept serve as the campus CHO.  It was agreed that EH&S should have the primary role and it would better align with oversight of chemical use and be able to work with Chemistry and Biology as key stakeholders and partners in maintaining compliance with regulations and the Chemical Hygiene Plan.

The timeframe for EH&S to assume the CHO responsibilities would need to be pushed into 2020 due to the lack of staff to fulfill the requirements.  The assistance from the SST is greatly appreciated.

Chemical Hygiene Plan:  Per the plan, the Dean of the School of Science and Technology is responsible for the administration and management of the CHP.  

  • The Dean would like this changed to have EH&S be responsible for the administration and management of the CHP. 

    • EH&S understands that the program belongs under the administration and maintenance of the EH&S dept.  The CHP has been reviewed and the EHS dept. plans to revise the entire plan.  Once the EH&S dept. is fully staffed, there will be more opportunity to transition this program to EHS for full oversight.  This is also in better alignment to have the program and the Chemical Hygiene Officer residing in EH&S as well.

Student Training – discussion concerning the student training forms and the continued implementation of the process.  Julie assured all, that the dept. techs have done an exceptional job implementing this process.  EH&S has done spot checks to assure that student safety training is being conducted for all students.