Lee, I couldn't agree more. Enough nice guy already.
I would ask people to review Neal Langerman's article in the November/December JCH&S, The Impact of the UCLA Agreement. Dang, the point of this article clearly is as he states: "The EH&S department is no longer 'responsible for safety.'" Our job is now to provide technical guidance--solid, clear, unequivocal technical guidance--for the PIs. Then the ball is in their court.
That means our job in this case is to point out the obvious serious drawbacks of flapping facial dreadlocks near chemicals, flame and mechanical hazards. Then as I see it, we're done. It's not our job to deal with the personnalities or the enforcement. Get your oar out of that water. Instead, provide good technical advice. And if you suggest half way measures in kindness to this guy such as snooding up the beard like in the restaurant biz where the object is simply to keep fur out of the food, be prepared to accept some liability. After all, snood and all could be involved.
We can and SHOULD stop trying to sooth, cajole, plead, and make everyone happy. Just tell it like it is. Hell, one listened to us anyway. Now it's the PIs' fault if they don't listen. I love it.
Monona Rossol, M.S., M.F.A., Industrial Hygienist
President: Arts, Crafts & Theater Safety, Inc.
Safety Officer: Local USA829, IATSE
181 Thompson St., #23
-----Original Message-----
From: Lee Latimer <
lhlatimer**At_Symbol_Here**MINDSPRING.COM>
To: DCHAS-L <
DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU>
Sent: Tue, Jan 29, 2013 11:56 am
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Facial hair and fire?
I'm late in adding to the discussion due to travel, but want to address the compliance issue for your faculty member. He may be a charming rebel, but he is representing the university with any actions in the classroom/lab or in what he shows by video, and probably outside your CHP. Typically, long hair of any kind is to be tied back and out of the way of any activity by lab or facilities personnel, especially so since the accident at Yale and some others. The university could be liable if anything happens to him or to a student emulating his actions. University and insurance lawyers may be the outside factor that can't be argued with to stop lunacy. It certainly should be taken as a performance issue in reviews by the dept chair and dean.
Lee Latimer
On 1/25/13 11:05 AM, "Samuella B Sigmann" <sigmannsb**At_Symbol_Here**APPSTATE.EDU> wrote:
Everyone - Thanks for all the input on this topic. Ken is correct, I do know this person well and actually like him very much. For the rest of the listserve, here is some background on me. I am actually a faculty member in the chemistry department and the CHO for the department. We have a very proactive Chair and for the most part, very responsive faculty. Our department worked very hard to promote a high standard of chemical hygiene and for the most part done this from within the department. This particular faculty member is a "rebel" and while he does realize the implications of his actions, he resists authority in general (not just on safety issues). This is just his nature, not a bad fellow.
Heavy handedness will not work well with this person, so we will have to present this to him in a very logical way. I think that Ken has it right in laying it out as he suggested. I will compile all of the listserve responses and give them to our chair along with my recommendation. As Monona mentioned this length of hair is also a "catch" hazard and, in fact, he has had his beard pulled into a vacuum pump. Her comment about vanity could be correct, but it could also be that the more we push on this being a hazard, the more he will push back just on general principles to buck authority. These types of personalities often get to a point where they can't back down gracefully and have to maintain their stance "on principle".
