Did you know the campus has been installing energy efficient fume hoods in new buildings for almost a decade? Part of what makes these fume hoods efficient is there are various ways the fume hood can detect it is "closed" and decrease airflow. Efficiency is an excellent reason to keep sashes closed but it's not the only reason- it is actually specifically written into the fire code that sashes must be closed when not in use. It's also just a smart thing to do!
Incident Spotlight- The Lab Incident Dashboard
This dashboard was recently distributed by the Lab Safety Institute, it is a history of all academic and industrial lab accidents recorded around the world. Take a moment to look around: Lab Safety Incident Dashboard
Safety Officer Appreciation Lunch
Please join us in celebrating your safety leadership during the past year with a free lunch and discussion on May 8 at 12:30.
The triple-rinse policy for disposing empty chemical containers serves a few purposes: removing hazards from the container, having due diligence for hazardous waste disposal, and providing hazard communication to others that may handle this container during disposal.
Hazard communication (HazCom) and the right-to-know standard allows all workers to know and understand the hazards that are present in a chemical container before interacting with it. This is the purpose of the "blue stickers" and defacing the GHS symbols and information from the container; you're communicating to the person(s) handling this container in the future that there are no more hazards.
This container was recently left on a loading dock and was refused to be collected for disposal- was hazcom properly followed?
