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Previous by Date: Subject: Need Your Opinion on Safety Issues Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 15:25:39 -0500 Author: Edward Senkbeil |
Next by Date: Subject: Re: Need Your Opinion on Safety Issues Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 15:22:11 -0600 Author: Mark A Cernigliaro |
>My chemistry Department (Salisbury University) does not presently have a
>policy requiring pants to be worn in the undergraduate teaching labs. I
>know the ACS recommends undergraduates wearing them, but our faculty are
>somewhat split on enforcing the wearing of pants, especially in the
>general chemistry lab, wear a minimum of hazardous chemicals are used.
>I would appreciate any input on thoughts on a requirement for wearing
>pants (not shorts, skits, etc.).
>
>Thank you,
>Ed Senkbeil
>Chemistry Department
>Salisbury University
Pants are part of PPE. [begin rhetorical questions] Would one say
that safety goggles are not really needed because there is a minimum
of hazardous chemicals in use? Or that seat belts aren't required if
you are driving really slow? Can you guarantee that there will never
be a truly hazardous situation involving accidental waste mixing
etc.? [end rhetorical questions]
From my reading of OSHA regs and study of CHP's at Universities
around the country, shorts and skirts should be and are prohibited.
OSHA's PPE standard 1910.132 says:
1910.132(d) Hazard assessment and equipment selection.
(d)(1)(i)
Select, and have each affected employee use, the types of
PPE that will protect the affected employee from the hazards
identified in the hazard assessment;
And the Laboratory Standard, 1910.1450 makes this definition:
"Protective laboratory practices and equipment" means those
laboratory procedures, practices and equipment accepted by
laboratory health and safety experts as effective, or that
the employer can show to be effective, in minimizing the
potential for employee exposure to hazardous chemicals."
Every lab safety expert will tell you that covering exposed legs will
minimize potential exposure. I'm no attorney, but I suspect that
failing to Officially prohibit shorts could worsen your liability
potential if a student spills nitric acid etc. on his/her legs. And
your insurance carrier will have some choice thoughts, too, no doubt.
Hazards from chemicals are not the only issue. There are physical
hazard issues of broken glass, thermal burns etc. etc. Back when I
was a professor, another professor's grad student was helping clean
up a teaching lab. He was pushing a cart stacked with old vacuum
lines etc and he gashed his leg fairly well. I have no doubt that
his injuries would have been less severe if he had been wearing jeans
rather than shorts. Probably a butterfly closure rather than
stitches.
But the *really* important intangible factor here is that permitting
shorts (and sandals etc.) where they are not appropriate - even if
borderline, inculcates students with the idea that safety is
something that you only worry about when you're "doing something
dangerous". We ALL know where that leads.... Safety works only if
it is a core value and part of EVERY experiment or procedure.
I refer you here specifically for an example of what a proper culture
of safety can accomplish. Specifically, what if the student in the
third paragraph had NOT been wearing his goggles because he wasn't
doing anything dangerous: http://www.ilpi.com/safety/explosion.html
Regards,
Dr. Rob Toreki
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