| About This Archive | | DCHAS-L 2011 Index | | DCHAS-L Yearly Index | |
Check out Safety Emporium for your N95, N99, and face shield needs.
|
Previous by Date: Subject: Re: Dioxin research Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2011 11:09:25 -0500 Author: Margaret Rakas |
Next by Date: Subject: Re: Chemical Safety headlines from Google -- You may get a call Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2011 08:35:18 -0800 Author: "Looney, Bill" |
An ongoing concern here at UVM is how to maintain an accurate list of the laboratories on campus. This issue arises in terms of regulatory interactions and emergency planning efforts, but also is important in assigning responsibility for housekeeping and other management issues which arise. There are many challenges associated with this, including: - The definition of "lab" (as opposed to shop, studio, cell culture room, etc.). - Are the extent of labs defined geographically (by room) or by people (by lab supervisor and workers)? - Should the use of the lab (class vs. research, instrument vs. wet chemical, etc.) define what information is collected about it? - How are records kept up to date in a academic environment, where the relevant information about some operations change weekly and others change only over the decades? - The level of personnel turnover in academia makes education and training of key personnel in the importance and methods of maintaining this list an ongoing challenge. I suspect that this is not a major issue in specific departments, but presents a bigger challenge across institutions as a whole, where there are different scientific styles in, for example, chemistry departments distinct from biomedical departments distinct from engineering departments. My understanding is that these considerations often mean Environmental Health and Safety programs have trouble using institutional data collected for other purposes to determine where labs are and who's working in them and so end up generating their own lab rosters. I wonder what approaches to this challenge academic DCHAS members have developed. Thanks for any insight into this issue. - Ralph Ralph Stuart, CIH Environmental Safety Manager University of Vermont Environmental Safety Facility 667 Spear St. Burlington, VT 05405 rstuart**At_Symbol_Here**uvm.edu
Previous post | Top of Page | Next post