ROMS Meeting Agenda July 20, 2016

Transcription

1 ROMS Meeting Agenda July 20, 2016 Introducing new Lab and Biosafety Positions within EH&S Introducing SPH Assistant Director of Lab and Biosafety Training Management System Transition/Lab Roster Mgt. Process o Reminder additional training session today - 1:00 (TMEC 209) Incident/Injury Reporting Chris Rowell (EH&S Occupational Safety) o Department Administrators are encouraged to attend Recent Incident Updates Summer Attire Update Additional Questions/Comments

2 EH&S Lab Safety Contacts Lab Safety Jackie Kerr Cell: Biosafety Marissa Cardwell Office: Cell:

3 Harvard Training Portal System will not be live until July 25 th Site name is Questions can be directed to Project website Informational demo session TODAY TMEC 209 (260 Longwood Ave) 1-2pm

4 Moving forward Roster managers can do all of the items that are listed in the job aide including Managing the members of the roster Linking associated people to the roster Managing their roster managers Manage the baseline trainings that everyone in the lab should take To set up a new lab, department, or PI; To delete a lab, department, or PI; To remove a Roster Manager that the PI or other Roster Manager cannot change

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6 Incident Reporting Chris Rowell, Associate Director of Occupational Safety Injury-illness report form: njury-illness_accident_report.pdf

7 An explosion occurred in April 2016 that caused a University of Hawaii, Manoa, postdoctoral researcher to lose an arm was caused by a spark from a digital pressure gauge that was not designed for use with flammable gases, says a Honolulu Fire Department investigation report. Thea Ekins-Coward was combining hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and oxygen gases from high-pressure cylinders into a lower pressure tank when the incident occurred. She has not given the university permission to release information about her condition, said spokesman Daniel Meisenzahl at an April 18 press conference.

8 The gas mixture was food for bacteria being used to produce biofuels and bioplastics. Ekins-Coward was working for the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute under researcher Jian Yu. A 2013 paper by Yu indicates a set-up in which gases are plumbed through a mixing device called a gas proportioner directly into the bioreactor (Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 2013, DOI: /j.ijhydene ). The gas gauge identified in the paper is an intrinsically safe model designed to prevent ignition. But after Ekins-Coward started in the lab last fall, she purchased a 49-L steel gas tank, a different gauge not rated as intrinsically safe, a pressure-relief valve, and fittings, and she put them together, Yu and Ekins-Coward told fire department investigators, according to the report. Ekins-Coward would add the gases to the portable tank, which would then be connected to the bioreactor. She was using a mixture of 70% hydrogen, 25% oxygen, and 5% carbon dioxide for her experiments, the report says.

9 In the week before the incident, a similar set-up with a 3.8-L tank resulted in a small internal explosion when Ekins- Coward pressed the off button on the gauge, the fire department report says. She also occasionally experienced static shocks when touching the tank, which was not grounded. She reported the shocks and possibly the small explosion to Yu, who told her not to worry about it, the report says. On the day of the incident, the 49-L tank exploded when Ekins-Coward pressed the off button on the gauge. She did not lose consciousness or hit her head; she was aware that she lost her arm in the explosion, the report says. She couldn t open the door to the lab, the door was stuck closed. Security officers and a graduate student kicked in the door to help Ekins-Coward get out. Her right arm was severed just above the elbow, the report says.

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