Debbie, in general in our organisation we consider exposure incidents or the sub orbital placement of buildings lag indicators. While very useful, especially if you apply as a hierarchy of incidents, they are not always a good indicator of cultural change or effective at highlighting areas requiring change. As always it is the goal of any safety improvement system to make the changes before there is an incident. To help promote culture change and discussion we have introduced a safety checklist to our laboratories which is done internally by departments once a month and used as a metric for compliance to good safety practice. We encourage different staff to do the checklist each month (always in pairs) and to contribute to the discussions on the evidence guide / training package associated with the checklist. The list itself is kept to 25 questions to ensure that it does not become a burden and it is reviewed every 12 months to keep it fresh and to introduce new ideas/issues as they arise. Every sites results are visible globally and we intentionally do set pass or fail points. We have found that the numbers of recurring issues arising from the checklist (thing like improperly labelled chemicals, obstructed safety showers, etc) actually give us a reasonable indication as to the progress of our safety culture. Of course the whole thing is integrated with good training processes and tools with the constant involvement of facility representatives. Regards Dr Eric Wilkes Global Manager Analytical Services Best Practice and Performance Fosters Group Ltd ph: 03 9420 6594 or int: 61 3 9420 6594 mob: 0408 668 718 or int: 61 408 668 718 Fax: 03 9420 6919 or int: 61 3 9420 6919 -----Original Message----- From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Debbie M. Decker Sent: Thursday, 11 December 2008 8:34 AM To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU Subject: [DCHAS-L] Measuring chemical safety program effectiveness Some musings, in advance of my chemical safety committee meeting........ How do I measure if the campus chemical and laboratory safety program is _really_ effective? Lack of exposure incidents? Lack of buildings in low earth orbit? I train a lot of people and we don't appear to have too many exposure incidents and the chemistry building hasn't been launched into low earth orbit - is that an "effective program?" I'm really interested in how ya'll think about this. Thanks! Debbie -------------------- Debbie Decker EH&S UCDavis (530)754-7964 FAX (530)752-4527 dmdecker**At_Symbol_Here**ucdavis.edu Co-Conspirator to Make the World A Better Place -- Visit www.HeroicStories.com and join the conspiracy Birkett's hypothesis: "Any chemical reaction that proceeds smoothly under normal conditions, can proceed violently in the presence of an idiot." *************************************************************************** *********** This email and any attachments may be confidential and legally privileged. Please notify the sender immediately if you received this message in error. Please do not delete or alter this notice. *************************************************************************** ***********
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