2001 AIHA Lab
Health and Safety Committee Meeting
New Orleans, Louisiana
1. Approval
of minutes from 2000 AICHE Lab H&S committee meeting.
Larry Gibbs pointed out that Que Hee is the correct spelling under 3a. Motion to approve with correction by
Matt Finucane , second by Liz Gross , Approved.
2. Membership
issues.
Official membership and corresponding membership. Everyone encouraged to participate. That’s the way to voting membership. Anyone wanting to cycle off, please let Pam
Greeley know (greenley@mit.edu). Pam will update.
3.
List
serve, corresponding members.
Anyone can e-mail to Lindsey Kayman (kayman@umdnj.edu)
to get on list.
4.
PDC’s
Safety and Health in Research Labs –
attendance about 49. 95% Favorable, Strong consensus to increase to a full day and
cover some of the topics in full depth. Best
group in terms of participation. Run again. Contact Joe Passante if you’re
interested in participating.
Fume Hoods and Lab Air Control Systems
– difficult to evaluate. Billed as being
an advanced course, some of the information in morning was very introductory to moderate. However, many people needed this even tough it was
not’t advertised as elementary or advanced.
Instructor student interaction fine.
No logos on slides, but there did not’t have to be there. Spoke very freely about products. Some information a bit confusing. Two students quite knowledgeable were upset
about misinformation that was given; however, the instructor open to questions. Not a lot of things said that were wrong, but many
things were left out. Issues with more
than one perspective were presented with only one perspective.
Was misinformation
corrected? Efforts were made to correct it. Doug Walters is willing to talk to Continuing
Education committee.
Lab Ventilation
– not enough attendees, so cancelled.
Lab Safety and Health
Course not sponsored by committee – material very basic, got people talking. Recommend both instructors, one from Battelle,
from Emicon. About 50 people attended.
Leadership in Health and
Safety – absolutely engaged. 3- 23 years
in business. Good for new and old to
management. Frank. Fulwiller recommended as instructor.
The committee plans to
sponsor the safety and health in research labs next year as well as lab ventilation.
5. Technical Sessions and Roundtables
One is on lab safety on Wed morning, 10-12 am.
On Thursday Gordon has
organized a lab design roundtable. Jim Rock
will represent z9.5 committee.
Biomonitoring and
medical surveillance roundtable – Larry Gibbs, Joe Raab and Dave Lumby presented
along with Shane Que Hee.
Lindsey Kayman is
technical session arranger for this year’s conference – thanks. Dave Lumby will be technical session arranger for
next years lab health and safety platform session next year. Please contact Dave if you want to present (david.lumby@covance.com).
Doug Walters is
interested in putting something together on engineering controls, containment of hazardous
chemicals in lab. Low flow hoods, use of
computerized fluid dynamics. Want to build on
this years session with Gordon. Not covering low flow hoods in Thursdays session.
May want to think
about green lab design. Planning on
roundtable format.
6.
Web site
Lindsey very instrumental along with her
colleague at UMDNJ, Suzanne Kupiec. Lots of
material from Gordon. Accidents and Incidents
finally there. Tom Ouimet from Yale
participated in development.
Includes technical
links and incidents/accidents. A couple
submissions have come, we’ve also asked for permission to publish. Why haven’t people submitted? Concerns about OSHA. All identifying information is removed. Incidents go to Ken Kretchman, he writes key
learning points. Looking for volunteers for
incidents. One person wouldn’t submit
because of legal concerns. Going
to add anonymous submission form. Missing a
section on fire safety.
Like to add topic
for fines. Suggested that it be linked to
government finding. Lisa Greathouse from U of
Louisville is keeping a list of university audits.
Labsafety listserve, safety list serve, biosafety list serve, CHSEMA
list serve are also useful.
Ken Kretchman pointed
out that not all other committees have a web site. Perhaps
we could get them to look at this information and send back comments.
Got
comments from NFPA committee. Asked for
committee input.
Anything about
self-inspections/audits, PPE checklist, ergonomics guide, reproductive health would be
good topics. Steve Hemperly did PPE info.
New business item. Reviews of carcinogen lists that come out Tim Governor will forward carcinogen list.
Deb Sharp will send lab design criteria/Min standards for lab design.
Biosafety Committee
– want to liaison with this committee
7.
Compendium
Liz Gross intended for document for
free, but is part of a paid book. Now
available on web as free example chapter. Handed
out compendium. Cross reference to other
chapters, then by topic other references. Would
like everyone to take a look at any glaring holes or anything to add into addition or any
updates. This is a separate book from
the compendium. Hat’s off to Steve. Put Liz’s e-mail in the website.
Ken asked if we could send out a list of information to the list serve.
8.
Outreach
efforts
ACS/ABSA
- Matt Finucane./Larry Gibbs continue to present their course to other
professional disciplines. Will present IH for biosafety officers at American Biosafety
Association (ABSA) meeting in October 2001. Attempted to present IH for chemists at ACS. Registration was so low, decided not to do it when
only seven people signed up. Did it in
St. Louis a couple of years ago. Comments
were very good. The two courses are
similar with modules go in and out for chemists or biosafety professionals.
In the past the committee has discussed
setting up a speakers bureau to train people to do these at local/regional meetings. Trained people could be other members. Valuable adjunct to H&S training. Anyone interested let Pam Greenley
know (greenley@mit.edu ).
A suggestion was made to do training on a
web format vs. live.
CHSEMA – Ken Kretchman reported that a
program was given at the end of the meeting. Program
was Lab Health and Safety & Exposure Assessment.
About 30 some people. At
conference can leverage travel. Is this a
good use of resources to send 2 people out to train 60 people. This year’s conference is at Texas A&M.
Rolf Hahne pointed out that UWASH ERC offers lab health and safety course
through the Northwest Center for Occupational Health and Safety.
Lindsey Kayman suggested we could publish
course listings on web-site.
ACS – Doug Walters. 165K chemists at ACS. Workshops at ACS are not crowded. 18 is huge. 17K
people attended. Chemical Hygiene standard
required chemical hygiene officers. Small
companies that have small labs. Chemist is
CHO, person doesn’t go to AIHCE or ACS national meetings. CHO training at a local level. We should try to match up local AIHA and ACS
training. Doug has been serving as AIHA
liaison to ACS Div of Chemical Health and Safety. Doug
pointed out that Lou DiBeradinis and Emmett Barclay won awards from this group. In addition to travel to the meeting there was a
2k award. Doug is currently awards chair and
would like submissions.
Web based training course through web site. Is anyone willing to donate some
segments of on-line training. Rich Prodhans
noted that on-line training is available already and we shouldn’t try to duplicate
it.
Training and communication committee. Web based some things appropriate, some not.
Assume 50-400 hours of time per hour of web based training.
Charlyn Pert asked if we could get a link to
our site from the ACS site.
Want to have limitations of what CHO is vs.
Industrial hygienist or safety engineer.
Larry took a crack at that type of content. If you’ve got expanded duties, then you may
need to get additional information.
The Lab Standard preamble states there are
100K Labs anticipated to be affected by the standard.
Deb Sharpe pointed out that we need to
define our scope. Should it be lab safety
training or simply what the standard require of a CHO.
Doug Walters pointed out that it’s too complicated to have one training. Go with local section level. There would be someone in that geographical
area who’s willing to do the local training.
Ross Grayson pointed out that before we can
do this we need to limit the scope.
Peter Harnett pointed out that being CHO is
complicated and many people don’t want to do training.
Matt Finucane suggested putting up something
about what a CHO should know and where they could get information otherwise.
Pam Greeley suggested starting a very basic
primer, but not necessarily a training site.
Sandy Witek-Eames suggested having one page
fact sheets.
Tom Ouimet suggested that we think about
distance learning more broadly.
Jim Kaufmann already runs a lab safety list
server and puts on training.
Should we plan training around CHO exam
prep? If you read the standard, you can pass
exam. Also, one day training for CHO exam is
already available through the Lab Safety and Environmental Management meeting that is put
on each year.
Start with something – Start with
information bases. That let’s people figure out what we don’t know.
Joe Raab pointed out that the course has to
have perceived value for a person to be willing to take the course.
Matt Finucane pointed out that much of what
you do is institution based and culture. Doesn’t
think sharing is always a good idea.
A survey of CHO duties was suggested, but
several people felt it was not a good idea.
Ken Kretchman suggested we develop job
descriptions – perhaps Chemical Hygiene officer I / II / III .
Lindsay summarized stating this was a good
start and asked for volunteers. Rolf
Hahne, Sandy Witek-Eames , Tom, Ouimet, Ken Kretchman, Peter Harnett, Vilmarie Rodriguez,
and Deb Sharpe. Volunteered to work on CHO training.
9. Liaisons with other committees
AIHA Exposure Assessment committee –
Ken Kretchman reported that both they and biosafety committee are putting on symposium. Exp Assess. is tacked onto PCIH.
AIHA Biosafety committee – Ken
Kretchman reported that the Biosafety committee is going to do a re-write of the Biosafety
Reference Manual. Looking for comments
outside of biosafety committee. Phil Houck is
contact person.
White book – review requested. The Occupational Environment: It’s Evaluation and Control. If anyone is interested, please review. Lab H&S is 48 of 50 chapters. Stephan Wasnecki and Faye Thompson. Ross Grayson, Deb Sharp, Dan Hurley, Doug
Walters, George Petroka and Sandy Witke-Eames are willing to review.
Z9.5 committee - Doug Walters reported that the comment period is
over. Comment has been received. Most comments are typos. Group is being formed to make the changes, will be
changed and then issued.
Tom Ouimet is looking for training materials
for firefighters responding to laboratory fires.
NFPA 45 revisions - Ken Kretchman to supply info.
10. Fellows
nominations
The AIHA has a fellows program to recognize
individuals with long outstanding service to AIHA. Please send Pam Greenley any
nominations. (greenly@mit.edu
).
11. Lindsay
Cook - Board Member liason
Lindsay offered to
take questions after discussing two points.
Point 1. Technical committee development fund – AIHA
puts aside 25K per year to fund projects that committees see the need to have. At some point the project should become
revenue neutral. Applications are due in
August.
Point 2. Recent board activities - L. Boor of Exxon Mobil
was appointed to look at services that association provides to members and others to see
what’s the value. Report was excellent. Primary goal was to focus on what we do and how we
provide it. In past, lack of fiscal rigor. Many projects starting, but other projects not
ending. Looking at what we’re doing. It’s a value rank not a cost benefit ranking. Don’t have any specifics today. Benefit of organization to look at new
projects. Change in new managing
director . Wanted to have filled by strategic
planning cycle start in Nov.
Q: Lab H&S committee embodies the “total
EH&S professional”. Philosophically,
where is AIHA going with larger EHS role?
A: WE are trying to collaborate with different groups like ASSE. We
are having foundations work together. We
tried to have a joint leadership conference with peers in ASSE. Unfortunately, that spiraled down hill. In the fall, leadership committee changes
fell apart. Our technical committee leadership meeting will now be held independently in
March.
A:
Federation of EHS organizations is under potential development. Mort Corn has started to discuss idea. Unification idea has started but only at
groundwork state.
Q: Where do you go to find out to find the cost
of the conference name changes?
A: Lindsey Cook agreed to find out. More money would have been available to technical
committees if it hadn’t spent on these activities.
Staff has had free rein to figure these things out. The conference is single largest generator of
revenue; part of the thinking was to attract more people to the conference.
Q: How is AIHA supporting TLV lawsuits?
A: AIHA will respond.
Has AIHA given any money yet. Still
to be considered by the board. Has a
vote come up? Discussion at Jan meeting. Vote was to delay consideration until how, when,
where were decided upon. May have to
consult total membership.
12. Larry Gibbs
motioned to adjourn, seconded by Matt Finucane, Approved
Respectfully Submitted, David Lumby,
Secretary
http://www2.umdnj.edu/eohssweb/aiha/administrative/minutes2001.htm |
