[Che-student-staff-list] Recent safety incidents in FRNY

[Nagy, Gabriela]

Hello Everyone,

I would like to share with you the safety incidents/near misses that occurred in FRNY and were reported during March-April 2015.


1.       March 6, 2015: while a graduate student researcher was subculturing cells, the glass pipette used broke and the glass cut the index finger of her right hand. No professional medical attention was needed in this case, the researcher stopped the bleeding and applied a band-aid to the laceration. Recommendations: it is recommended that before using any glass-made equipment, this should be carefully inspected for integrity; broken or cracked glass equipment should not be used in the lab.

2.        April 4, 2015: After an instrument was used in one of the research labs (researchers from multiple research groups use this instrument), the thermoelectric controller was left on, while the cooling system serving the controller was switched off. One researcher, unaware of this situation, received minor first degree burns to his hand after accidentally touching the overheated controller. No professional medical attention was needed in this case. Actions taken: A large sign was placed on the water valve reiterating that users need to turn off the thermoelectric controller before turning off the cooling water. After inspecting the system, it was also recommended that a flow control system be installed on this instrument. This will automatically switch off the heating, should the cooling water flow stop unexpectedly. This will prevent overheating of the system, possible damage to the instrument and safety incidents, like the one described here, from happening.

3.       April 6, 2015: Due to poor construction of an in-hose made electrical instrument, the researchers using it noticed that the aparatus was overheated. A closer examination after disconnecting it form the mains revealed that the wires inside the electrical controller were loose and potentially caused a short circuit to the instrument. Actions taken: the aparatus was temporarily decomissioned  and inspected by our Director of Instrumentation, Dr. Yury Zvinevich, and by REM presonnel. After proving unsafe for use in our labs, the inspection team made the following recommendations: (i) the researchers working with elecrtical items should have current electrical training (this was already delivered to the group by REM personell) and (ii) the aparatus be equipped with safety fearures such as grounding and fuses (or other kind of circuit breaker). At the same time, all in-house made electrical devices will need to be equipped with these safety features and inspected internally and by Dr. Yury Zvinevich before being used in our labs.

The ChE Safety Committee recommends that electrical devices used in our research labs be professionally designed and constructed to incorporate necessary safety feactures. If you choose to build your own instrument/device, this needs to be safety inspected by Dr. Zvinevich before being used in our labs. Dr. Zvinevich will make recommendations on what needs to be incorporated to ensure the aparatus is safe to use.
Should you identify that elecrtical training is needed for the work in your work area, please let me know and we can make arrangements with REM to provide this training for you and your group, as necessary.

I hope that sharing this information with you will prevent similar situations from occurring in our labs. Should you have questions, please let me know.

Sincerely,
Gabriela
On behalf of the ChE Safety Committee


__________________
Gabriela Nagy, PhD
Industrial Education Director
ChE Safety Committee Chair
School of Chemical Engineering
Room FRNY G051
Purdue University
Tel: (765)-496-1710
E-mail: nagyg at purdue.edu<mailto:nagyg at purdue.edu>


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: </ECN/mailman/archives/che-student-staff-list/attachments/20150430/f237d99a/attachment.html>