Hi Ken!

 

I will send you stuff under separate cover if you share your email. I find anything worth saying regarding lab safety is said better with PICTURES! Not exactly blood and gore, but definitely charred cabinets and hoods, shattered glass, burnt ceilings, and the statistics associated with each situation.

 

Dr. Bob Haugen

Director of Product and Technology Development

Flow Sciences, Inc.

drbob**At_Symbol_Here**flowsciences.com

 

 

910 332 4878

 

Containment Products • Get a Quote/Consultation • Get Support/Replacement Parts

 

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From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety [mailto:DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU] On Behalf Of Ken Kretchman
Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2019 3:36 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] [New post] Health and Safety II?

 

All

 

I think this a very useful thread.  I have a half finished project to attack this problem here and would like your help.

 

In a similar vein to what has been shared here I had recently decided, with regard to lack of consistent use of eye protection, that

I have not done my part completely.  

 

As has been shared with the ACS lessons learned recently, seemingly one has to have personal bad experience or that of another

colleague to fully appreciate the risk. And often they don't have that experience.  Without that, they have an insufficient basis for their own

risk / benefit decisions.  For example, entering a lab empty of personnel and putting on eye protection first, may seem to them like something

they might do simply because of institution rules.  However, if they were involved in the various situations I (and you) have personally investigated,

where upon entry (or when the lab was luckily truly empty of personnel) something went boom with flying shrapnel, perhaps they would see things differently.

 

So I realize I have not compiled and distributed my own list of situations investigated that ended badly or could have with an "empty" lab.  This includes

pressurized waste containers blowing, walking in when an unattended experiment decides to blow, or someone being lucky enough to not walk in

just when an over-pressurized drierite column explodes with shrapnel in walls and ceiling.  

 

If you care to add to your experience on this single topic "entering an unoccupied lab without eye protection or when no seemingly hazardous tasks were being 

performed " I would be happy to compile, share with our staff and students, and this listserve..

 

I think many in my community here might have a different view of their personal risk / benefit after this additional education on variety and frequency of these

occurrences...  

 

thanks

Ken

dl sesososslogatrsstig the varou uasetionnig on tinltn  lab ofr efaultya foualiriehternceknowledge selyone has it seemsnelty

 

 

Ken Kretchman, CIH, CSP   Director, Environmental Health and Safety

NC State University / Box 8007 / 2620 Wolf Village Way / Raleigh North Carolina 27695-8007

Email: Ken_Kretchman**At_Symbol_Here**ncsu.edu / Phone: (919).515.6860 / Fax: (919).515.6307

 

 

On Sun, Aug 11, 2019 at 9:48 PM Monona Rossol <0000030664c37427-dmarc-request**At_Symbol_Here**lists.princeton.edu> wrote:

We have the same free-climbing yahoos breaking the OSHA regulations in film studios, outdoor locations, arena stages and the like.  They free-climb the scaffolds and rigging and trusses and they are menace to themselves and everyone else.  

 

I can only hope Darwinism holds part of the answer and these people will become an endangered species before many more people are hurt.

 

Monona

-----Original Message-----
From: Stuart, Ralph <Ralph.Stuart**At_Symbol_Here**KEENE.EDU>
To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Sent: Sun, Aug 11, 2019 5:51 pm
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] [New post] Health and Safety II?

> And they are not unique to the wilderness environment, when things like distracted or impaired driving occur with far greater frequency and potential to impact far greater numbers of people directly or indirectly. 

Another environment where I have heard that this discussion occurs is skydiving. This came up when I was talking to an assistant dean about safety culture; she is a skydiver recreationally. She explained that nationally, the recreational skydiving industry has a strong, coordinated safety outreach effort (see https://uspa.org/safetyday for information on their annual "Safety Day" event). However, skydiving's public image as a safe activity is undermined by daredevil sky divers who like to take video of unnecessary chances they take and post their stunts on Youtube. The industry believes that this daredevil image is an important marketing problem it faces. In support of this idea, I have had conversations with several people who are interested in trying skydiving, but have been forbidden to do so by their family. And I have heard that Chinese students interested in studying chemistry face family opposition for similar reasons.

In my mind, there are parallels to chemistry educators who include apparently uncontrolled risk as part of the charm quotient of their class demonstrations. See, for example, that January 1980 article in J Chem Ed which describes the second law of "Exocharmic Reactions" which describes it's "second law" of these reactions as
"When the reaction occurs, the fraction of the latent charm evolved depends directly upon the technical and histrionic skills of the person performing the experiment."
I suspect that a short cut to histrionic skills is apparent risk. I suspect that this approach to classroom chemistry helps explain the reaction Chinese students face and other cases of chemophobia.

One lesson I draw from this is that the safety culture of any group must be pro-active in responding to incidents in their area of expertise and be ready to explain to the public that the risk attitudes of a particular individuals should not be taken as being that of the group of the whole. Some good news in this regard came up last week when a Pew poll found that the public's trust in scientists is on the increase. See
https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/the-publics-trust-in-scientists-rises--pew-poll-shows-66230
for one news story on this.

>Ralph, I do hope this has been helpful as you prepare content for San Diego.

It has been. I'm still feeling my way towards what I want to say in this presentation and the wide variety of perspectives on this topic is very helpful.

Thanks to everyone for their contribution to this discussion.

- Ralph

Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
Environmental Safety Manager
Keene State College
603 358-2859

ralph.stuart**At_Symbol_Here**keene.edu

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