Ten UT Laboratories have been cited for staff failure to complete mandatory lab safety training in a timely manner.
The Environmental Health and Safety office’s citations are based on a checklist of more than 30 requirements for a “safe” lab. Each of the 1,072 labs on campus are inspected annually, and those that repeatedly fail to pass inspection are placed on a semi-annual inspection cycle. The 10 laboratories that failed to meet safety requirements did not correct the citations within the allotted 30-day time period.
Heads of laboratories and lab personnel, including students, must complete a general EHS training course and a more specific on-site training course if working with hazardous chemicals. Failure to complete the required training must be resolved within 30 days of the initial citation. If the problem is not corrected within that period, EHS notifies the dean of the lab’s college, who can use his or her discretion to determine consequences.
Six of the 10 laboratories were cited because of the head professor’s lack of general EHS training, two laboratories were cited because of a lack of general EHS training for the lab’s personnel and the other two were cited because professors did not administer hazardous-chemical training to their staff.
The general EHS training teaches lab personnel to identify certain hazards and take safety measures. It also includes first aid information and describes what to do in the event of an emergency. The course is available online and takes about 45 minutes to complete, said EHS Assistant Director Dennis Nolan.
“We teach general lab communication to make sure chemicals are properly labeled and so on,” Nolan said. “But the researcher needs to ensure that the staff knows about the chemical hazards in their work place.”
The 10 laboratories are supervised by UT faculty members Thomas Milner, Krishnaswa Ravi-Chandar, Arturo De Lozanne, K. Sathasivan, Michael Ryan, David Cannatella, Ron Matthews, Charlie Kerans, Noel Clemens and David Allen.
Lab safety is not just an issue for large research universities like UT. Dick Bartosh, the environmental health and safety chairman for the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, said ensuring that lab personnel complete their required training is a universal necessity.
The University has an enrollment of more than 9,000 students.
“We, at this point, try to encourage as well as we can all faculty and staff to attend [the training],” Bartosh said. “But some are very independent, and we’re working on trying to encourage them more strongly.”
Sathasivan, a biological sciences senior lecturer, was cited in July for not completing the general training. He completed it about 15 years ago, but the office told him he needed to redo it to update the office’s information system, he said.
“The safety training is critical so people don’t hurt themselves or hurt others in the lab,” Sathasivan said. “We’re constantly aware that safety comes before science. That’s what I teach [my students]. A clean, safe lab is also a good lab, and that is one of the important things to learn.”
Clemens, an engineering professor, was cited in August for not training his lab personnel on-site, and the office reported that he still had not completed the on-site, hazardous-chemical training as of October. Clemens said his personnel have now completed the training.
“We hadn’t developed the site-specific plan,” Clemens said. “It’s more difficult to come up with a plan than it is to go through it. It’s more time-consuming because [you need to] really know the safety hazards and let the people be aware of them.”
Other lab deficiencies can include damaged electrical cords, lack of available lab clothing and improperly labeled chemicals.
“There’s a difference between being safe and documenting the safety,” Clemens said.
“We were always safe in the sense that people were trained. It’s something [personnel] go through as they work with technicians and other students.”
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