[Che-student-staff-list] Important Safety Information - Please Read

[Davis, Linda S]

ChE Faculty, Staff and Students,

(I shared the following information at the April faculty meeting.)

The safety goal in chemical engineering is that everyone who works here goes home in the same condition that they arrived each morning.  We will achieve this goal by developing and sustaining a strong safety culture in chemical engineering.

A strong safety culture is not:

*         We have an active safety committee

*         We are re-indemnified by REM every year.

The safety culture in ChE can be measured/characterized as "how we behave when no one is looking."  Safety culture starts at the top of our organization - with our faculty.  The faculty (Primary Investigators) and the lab managers are accountable for safety; however, everyone is responsible for safety.

There are several immediate indicators of the safety culture in a laboratory:

*         Housekeeping

*         PPE use

*         Record Keeping

On any day, you can enter chemical engineering laboratories and the occupants are not wearing safety glasses.  Our policy is that you must have safety glasses on when you enter a ChE lab and keep them on until you leave the laboratory - no exceptions.

We have had three incidents in the last two months.  Incidents are lagging indicators of safety culture and performance.


1)      A graduate student was inserting a stopper into a graduated cylinder and the cylinder broke.  The student sustained a significant cut that required stitches and continuing medical review.  It is unclear if the student will regain full feeling in and use of one of his fingers, potentially a permanent injury.

2)      An undergraduate student was operating a glass reactor in a heat mantle when it exploded.  There may have been a reaction runaway that over pressurized the reactor.  The over pressurization protection (relief valve) and barrier were not in place.  We were very fortunate that the student was not injured.

3)      A student was performing a non-routine procedure to extract a Lithium battery from a battery pack when a small fire started.  The lab occupants responded appropriately and the fire was extinguished without personnel or property damage.

Further Indicators:   There has been two reports of sharps found by the janitors in our trash containers.  The first (photo attached) was a large syringe needle found in a recycle paper bin in a hallway.  The second was a razor blade discarded in a laboratory trash can.  Sharps (anything that can puncture the skin and cause injury) must be disposed of in designated laboratory sharps containers.

We are very concerned that chemical engineering has taken its "eye off the ball" with regards to safety.  You do not want to have a call a parent or family member to inform them that their student or family member has been hurt or killed.   We want everyone in chemical engineering to recommit to safety as our #1 priority.

Safety must be taken seriously and addressed in our laboratories because universities and faculty can be liable: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/02/plea-negotations-to-continue-in-lab-fatality-case-at-ucla-.html.

As a first step, refresher ChE safety awareness training will be rolled out in August.  Completion of refresher safety awareness training annually will be required for all ChE employees.

Please contact me or any member of the ChE Safety Committee if you have any questions or safety concerns.

Thank you.

Linda

Linda S. Davis
Industrial Education Director
Chair, ChE Safety Committee (https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChE/AboutUs/Safety.html)
School of Chemical Engineering
Purdue University
lsdavis at purdue.edu<mailto:lsdavis at purdue.edu>
(765)496-1710

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