Discussion

Anyone have any experience decommissioning a Vacudyne VacuFume fumigation unit, commonly used for treating incoming materials prior to adding to a library collection.  From what I understand, our unit was installed circa 1974 and originally used ethylene ...

Hello I am looking for current university job postings, copies of recent postings, or official job descriptions for environmental protection specialist, environmental compliance specialist, hazardous materials specialist, or similar position that documents ...

Hi Leslie, Thanks, this is good to hear. Has anyone there done any evaluating of a reduction in fumes (e.g., with a particle counter or other testing)? That data would be quite helpful indeed. All the best, Jon ------Original ...

Hi Jonathan, We also use the Hakko fume extractors, and at about $70 they are very reasonable.  Our electrical engineering labs change configuration each quarter and we like the flexibility of moving the extractors around as needed. Additionally, exposing ...

The University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering is hiring a Safety Specialist who will be responsible for supporting and developing safety programs necessary to maintain a safe and healthy environment for faculty, staff, students and visitors. ...

Hello ALL, I would like to express my gratitude to this organization (CSHEMA). I have only been a member for the last 2-3 years and enjoyed reading your emails, questions and helpful suggestions. I have gone to the conference in Arizona and ...

Fellow CSHEMA Members -  The Georgia Environmental Conference (GEC) Scholarship Committee has announced their 2019 Student Scholarship Poster Competition.  The competition provides students from colleges in the Southeast the opportunity to present their ...

The next Bio CoP is meeting tomorrow,  Tuesday, April 16 th @ 12 PM CST (1 PM Eastern) with special guest: Rebecca Moritz MS, SM(NRCM), CBSP Responsible Official Institutional Contact for Dual Use Research University of Wisconsin-Madison ...

Harvard's Lab Safety Division is accepting applications for a Lab Safety Services Manager.  This is an excellent opportunity to lead a great team of EH&S professionals on Harvard's Longwood Campus, home to ground-breaking multi-disciplinary research programs ...

ASU Fire Marshal's Office is currently accepting applications to fill a vacant Fire Safety Officer position. I have attached the posting to this discussion and the web link to the posting is https://sjobs.brassring.com/TGnewUI/search/home/home?partnerid=25620&siteid=5494#jobDetails=3778404_5494 ...

Thanks Jesse. Any idea how effective it is? Have you done any evaluations on it? Perhaps a particle counter? Or is there any tech data for it? Much appreciated! Jon ------Original Message------ Hi Jon, I've recommended ...

Hi Jon, I've recommended a model from Hakko at a couple of work stations. As long as they are used per the manufacturer, and won't be in constant use, they do a good job. http://www.hakko.com/english/products/hakko_fa400.html They are relatively ...

Hi all, I got a request for the above.  They're using lead-free solder (confirmed) but we'd still like to remove the fumes.  Does anyone have a reasonably priced model (or a multi-station manifolded set of stations) or even a design you DIY'ed with ...

Hi everyone, as I mentioned on our COP call I received a request this week from the CDC Yellow Book group regarding a new health study related to student international travel. Please consider promoting participation at your campus or sharing this flyer ...

Hi All, At your institution, do you require or have a policy which says that all HAZMAT spills must at least be reported to PIs, even if they may be as insignificant as 5 ml of Ethanol or 10 ml of Sodium phosphate buffer? One of our PIs mentioned that ...

Ken, UNE does not allow Service animals in these areas. There are certain instances, i.e. chemical spills, broken glassware/contaminated sharps on the floor, etc. when it may be considered unsafe for animals in such places as medical facilities, laboratories, ...

Ken, As Allison points out, there are very specific laws in this area, and your office for disability services should take the lead on this. At UCLA, a student requesting to bring an animal into lab would be directed to our Center for Accessible Education. ...

​Hi, Ken-- First off, make sure it is a legitimate service dog (you are required to accommodate service animals for medically-certified disabilities, but NOT required to accommodate "comfort animals").  Be aware of the legality of the whole issue--you can ...

Good Morning Ken,     Gallaudet University campus has a policy in regards to service animals on campus. It has been quite some time since a student has made a request for their service animal to be present in a lab setting.  We do meet with the student ...

Dear Listers, We have received a request to allow a Service dog to accompany a student in labs during the summer. Please share your protocol if you allow this in your institution. What is your experience with this? Many thanks in advance for ...

Hi Jonah, I would be happy to discuss this as well.  We lump compliance groups, fire, IBC, IACUC.  I would be happy to discuss this with a phone call. Jan ------------------------------ Jan Eggum, MPH, CIH Laboratory Safety Specialist University of ...

Good morning all: If you want to discuss the O2 sensor a little more in depth ( or process alarms in general ) look me up at the conference - I have a great case history with picks and video. Until then Dennis Terpin ...

Good morning - Anyone have a welding shop safety toolbox talk that you can share? Thanks. Carol ------------------------------ Carol McMillin EH&S/Risk Manager Ursinus College Collegeville PA 610-409-3221 ------------------------------

CSHEMA Colleagues - EHS @ the University of Virginia has the following job opening. Please forward to anyone you think may be interested. Thank you! The Office of Environmental Health and Safety is seeking to fill the position of Chemical Safety Consultant ...

One other suggestion to consider, is if you do end up adding sensing equipment, add additional equipment external to the space so that you don't have to extrapolate a localized event to the whole building. For example, if you do have a cylinder failure ...

Thank you Jeff! Carol​ ------------------------------ Carol McMillin EH&S/Risk Manager Ursinus College Collegeville PA 610-409-3221 ------------------------------

Hi Jonah, When I conduct safety reviews (or audits) of labs I usually do so with a rep from the department. - usually a lab tech. They are there to open the lab doors (if locked) and also to verify the condition of the lab. I take photos and use them ...

Jonah, Our current lab inspection process is just finishing up its 1-year anniversary. We use LabcliQ, a cloud-based inspection program. Questions are primarily drawn from MIOSHA, IDEQ, and NFPA regulations and guidelines, with a few additional questions ...

This seems like a really, really complicated topic. Approaches will vary based on the regulatory family (environment is different than fire), the type of problem (administrative is different than facility), the institution's sensitivity to ...

At UCLA, when a lab fails to adequately address deficiencies identified during a lab safety survey within a reasonable time frame (either three days or ninety days, depending on severity), EH&S reports it as a repeat issue of noncompliance to the faculty-led ...

A convenient formula I recently saw on DCHAS - Final Oxygen conc. = 20.9 - 20.9*(Vgas/Vroom) Where Vgas is the volume of the gas and Vroom is the volume of the room. Since the original post was talking about cryogenic liquids and had to factor ...

Thanks John. This is really helpful. ​ ------------------------------ Carol McMillin EH&S/Risk Manager Ursinus College Collegeville PA 610-409-3221 ------------------------------

To say nothing of the IDLH for CO2. ------------------------------ John DeLaHunt Risk & Life Safety Manager University of Texas San Antonio San Antonio TX 210-458-4420 ------------------------------

Hi, Carol; A cubic foot of air weighs about 0.08 lbs.  So the 1,800 cf room you have has about 140 pounds of air in it, so about 30 lbs of O2.  Depending on what delivery pressure your cylinder has (it could be a liquid CO2 cylinder with ~850 psi, holding ...

The University of Maine System is looking to fill a recently vacated Safety Specialist position stationed at our flagship campus, University of Maine, located in Orono, Maine.  Please share with your colleagues. Thanks! Link below: https://maine.hiretouch.com/job-details?jobID=54555&job=safety-specialist&collection=true ...

H i Carol, I looked around on-line and oddly enough every calculation I could find originated in the United Kingdom. So, if you don't mind using the metric scale, here is a link to a calculation formula for CO2 and O2 cylinders in a room. ...

How does your institution or your specific safety dept (e.g., EHS) manage enforcement of correcting safety inspection deficiencies?  How does that differ or grouped together when you have a regulatory mandate that supports the addressable deficiency (e.g., ...

Hi, Please see the following notes from one of the NC State professors at Extension and Research. I've summarized his notes. ".... These types of messages that are circulating are very unfortunate and unfounded based on the current risk assessment data ...

Good morning. We are looking for feedback on how your campus manages fall protection for fixed ladders. All our fixed ladders are under the 24' OSHA threshold for requiring fall protection. We recently conducted an assessment and made the following ...

As an add-on to this discussion, is there a set calculation to determine if a CO2 cylinder (5' tall) could deplete the oxygen level in a space? I have a room that is 15.33' x 11.97' x 9.75' that has 100% air exchanges. The cylinder is located outside ...

​ Good Morning Has anyone had experience with mobile office "Shed on Wheels" use in open floor space. Essentially, individuals have their own moveable office which can be moved within a warehouse type space to form neighborhoods and foster collaboration ...

Hello all! Tomorrow (3/28/19 ) at 12 pm EST the Animal Research Health and Safety COP is pleased to have Karen Gillis, University of Florida's Assistant Director of Research Safety, join us to discuss UF's Animal Contact Medical Monitoring Program ...

Our practice is the same as Mahdi described; we would deny use of the chemical fume hood until the root cause of the tracer test fail is determined and corrected. There are many possible reasons why the test may have failed, and it is not reasonable to ...

Thank you Mahdi for your input. That is my recommendation as well but good to hear how others are addressing the issue of ASHRAE 110 failure and what they have had experience of with their chemical fume hoods. Best Regards, Debra ...

​Howdy! Texas A&M University EHS is seeking qualified applicants for the position of Environmental Health & Safety Coordinator III. This position is located at the Texas A&M College of Dentistry in Dallas, TX. Please click here for posting details. ...

Hi, In our test protocol, cross draft is measured, as recommended by ASHRAE 110 standard and if hood fails the test, it will be repeated after known/assumed reasons are addressed. Even if you are sure that cross draft was the only reason that resulted ...

Stephanie: At the largest Penn State campus (University Park), the landscape group is going to phase out their use of glyphosate. They intend to try a few different non-selective herbicides to control weeds in shrub beds until they find one that ...

We had a similar problem at Pitt that turned out to involve reentrained SF6 gas via lab air intakes too near the fume hood exhaust stack. After confirming with smoke generator Solution involved raising stack and installing a rooftop booster. Hope this ...

Hello Everyone, As some of you may be aware, a group of us within the Animal Safety COP are working on creating universal chemical containment levels for the use of chemical hazards in animals. In an effort to create a well-rounded set of recommendations, ...

There is a reason January is "National Radon Action Month". Homes are less ventilated in the winter and frost in the ground concentrates subterranean radon. Homes with basements punch a hole in that frost an act as a conduit. Winter winds blowing over ...