From: Monona Rossol <actsnyc**At_Symbol_Here**cs.com>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Laboratory Injury Rate Reference
Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2015 09:52:44 -0400
Reply-To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU>
Message-ID: 14e354ab0f9-4a2d-209d8**At_Symbol_Here**webprd-m97.mail.aol.com
In-Reply-To


Allelulia and Amen.  And make it campus-wide to include the shops, labs and studios full of chemicals and machines in the art, architecture, theater, agriculture, maintenance, grounds keeping, and other departments.


How many times are people like you and I brought in as experts because a smart teacher or technician is tired of having their suggestions and warnings ignored?   Schools could save money by just following up the information provided by their own good people.

Some administrators have a rule:  They will only take advice from people who have dirty socks in their suitcases.


Monona Rossol, M.S., M.F.A., Industrial Hygienist
President:  Arts, Crafts & Theater Safety, Inc.
Safety Officer: Local USA829, IATSE
181 Thompson St., #23
New York, NY 10012     212-777-0062
actsnyc**At_Symbol_Here**cs.com   www.artscraftstheatersafety.org

 


-----Original Message-----
From: Neal Langerman <chemsaf**At_Symbol_Here**GMAIL.COM>
To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU>
Sent: Sat, Jun 27, 2015 5:24 am
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Laboratory Injury Rate Reference

The best incident reporting system is in the aviation industry civil and military. It is strictly anonymous and includes all employee segments.  It is part of the "just culture" which includes the safety culture and excludes the blame culture. The semiconductor industry has a good incident reporting system also.
I am working on some ideas as how the academic lab industry can move to a just culture and plan to discuss them in my next News and Views JCHAS column.
I wholeheartedly agree with Peter. We can have safer labs and this group must provide the leadership for continuing safety improvement.
Neal
Sent from my Kindle Fire



From: James Keating <jameskeating1944**At_Symbol_Here**GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Fri Jun 26 15:35:04 PDT 2015
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Laboratory Injury Rate Reference

If anonymity is not designed into the data collection methodology and strictly maintained then the data will be totally worthless.
I have experience with numerous behavior based safety systems. None of these reporting programs are worth a hill of beans when it comes to trend analysis, or much of anything else.
Jim Keating

EHS Consultant
On Jun 26, 2015 5:11 PM, "Kim Jeskie" <
jeskiekb**At_Symbol_Here**comcast..net> wrote:
Well said Peter!



Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone


-------- Original message --------
From: "Ashbrook, Peter C" < peteash**At_Symbol_Here**ILLINOIS..EDU>
Date: 06/26/2015 10:18 AM (GMT-05:00)
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Laboratory Injury Rate Reference

Hi Dennis,
 
I have not been able to find any facts to support the statement that academic labs are ten times more hazardous than industrial labs. In fact, the only "hard" evidence I can find is looking at the Lab Safety Institute's Memorial Wall ( http://www.labsafetyinstitute.org/MemorialWall.html).  Of the 18 laboratory deaths listed for the United States in the past ten years, only 4 were at universities. One could make the conclusion that academic labs are safer than other labs based on that data.
 
To me, the issue is not whether academic or industrial labs are safer. Rather the issue is:  can we make all labs safer? I think we can all agree the answer to that question is "yes.." So, let's focus on that question rather than debating whether academic labs are really less safe than industrial labs.
 
Peter Ashbrook, Director
Division of Research Safety
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
 
From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto: dchas-l**At_Symbol_Here**med.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Nolan, Dennis H
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2015 12:43 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Laboratory Injury Rate Reference
 
I am working on my dissertation and I'm trying to locate the injury rate in academic labs as compared to industrial labs.  I have fact-checked the statement about "researchers are 11 times more likely to get hurt in academic labs than in an industrial lab" and have questioned the accuracy of that statement.  I have since seen this statistic perpetuated in recent safety articles and reports about lab safety but no reference exists for the statistic. 
 
I have not found Bureau of Labor Statistics data regarding injuries in academic labs.  If there was, it would not include most public academic labs, nor would it include non-employee (student) injuries in labs.  The closest data I have found is incidence rates for colleges, universities and professional schools- which includes
all employees that works at a university.  Furthermore, I have not been able to find the injury rate for "industrial" labs.  There are rates for chemical manufacturing but that would include everyone that works at a chemical manufacturer (not just labs).
 
If someone knows where I can access academic/industrial laboratory injury rate data, let me know.
 
 
Dennis
 
Dennis Nolan, MPH, MS, CBSP CCHO
Assistant Director
Environmental Health and Safety
The University of Texas at Austin
304 East 24th Street Ste 221
Austin, TX 78712
(512)232-4999
 
 
 
 

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