Dear DivCHAS Colleagues,

Many of you have asked me for information about Yale’s student shop safety program. We’ve just posted our new student shop safety policies and practices at http://www.yale.edu/ehs/Documents/phys/studentshopsafety.pdf.

The death of Michele Dufau lt last April was tragic and sorrowful for the Yale community. She was an e nlightened student who was already making contributions to the world.

After the accident, a Prov ostial Committee carefully reviewed how our shops are used, and concluded t hat, “Shop and fabrication actives play an important role in the education of many Yale students in the arts, science and engineerin g.” Yale also made immediate and fundamental improvements to our shop safety program. Yale’s President and Officers provided the highest d egree of support for this. This document describes Yale’s commitment to the safety of our students and staff, and our r e-dedication to a culture of safety here.

When fully implemented, I believe that Yale will be a safety leader in this area. Of particular inter est to safety professionals is, “Yale’s Tool/Equipment Hazard Classification System—Appendix IV.” This innovative control-ba nding approach associates appropriate safeguards with the risk class of eac h tool. This table has been vetted by Yale facility, machinists and EHS sta ff, as well as our consultant with considerable industry experience. We have carried this concept further by classifying e ach of our shops by the highest accessible risk class tool in the shop. The number of shops, tools and fabrication activities at a university are surp risingly large, and this approach has proven to be invaluable in quickly creating, communicating and impleme nting our safety policies and practices at each location.

I hope you find this helpf ul. If you have any questions, please contact me off-line.

Pete

Peter A. Reinhardt

Director, Office of Enviro nmental Health & Safety

Yale University

135 College St., Suite 100

New Haven, CT   06510-2411

(203) 737-2123< /span>

peter.reinhardt**At_Symbol_Here**yale.edu