JHU lab safety “Who’s who”

Dan Kuespert, PhD, CSP

Homewood Laboratory Safety Advocate
Krieger School of Arts & Sciences/Whiting School of Engineering
410-516-5525 (x6-5525)
103G Shaffer Hall
[email protected]

Dan is a PhD chemical engineer who is a great point of contact for all things lab safety. He works jointly for the Deans of the School of Arts & Sciences and the School of Engineering. He acts as an internal safety consultant, providing training courses (both academic and informal), consulting (from answering simple questions to re-engineering experimental designs to help make them safer), and generally working to enhance the safety culture at Homewood.

Niel Leon

Homewood Laser Safety Advocate
410-516-6752 (x6-6752)
G-43 Wyman Park Building
[email protected]

Niel is the campus’ laser safety expert. He is the principal resource for laser-using faculty, staff, and students in developing safe practices, procedures, experiments, and facilities. A skilled mechanical engineer, Niel can frequently re-engineer a laser installation so that laser safety goggles are not necessary during normal operation.

Perry Cooper, MS, HEM, CCHO

HSE Manager
JHU Department of Health, Safety, and Environment
410-516-8798 (x6-8798)
G-2 Wyman Park Building
[email protected]

HSE is the University’s centralized occupational health and safety department. Although it is based primarily at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in east Baltimore, Perry manages the office that services Homewood specifically. He is a certified hazardous materials manager and a certified chemical hygiene officer. Perry is your contact for policy issues, industrial hygiene advice, waste disposal, etc. HSE also provides the campus hazardous materials (HAZMAT) team, which handles chemical incidents too large for individual lab personnel.

Stephen Dahl, PhD, RBP

JH Biosafety Officer
410-955-5918 (x5-5918)
2024 E. Monument Street
[email protected]

Steve is Director of Biosafety for Johns Hopkins and a PhD microbiologist. He is your first point of contact for matters biological, ranging from consultations on sterilization methods to registration and risk assessment for proposed biological research. he also supervises the Health, Safety, and Environment annual laboratory inspection program.

Mina Razavi

Homewood Radiation Safety Officer
410-516-7278 (x6-7278)
Macaulay Hall basement
[email protected]

Mina is Radiation Safety Officer for the Homewood campus, and your contact for all things radioactive. She manages radiation licensing, materials ordering, personnel monitoring, regulatory compliance, and waste disposal. Always direct questions about JHU radiation safety policies and procedures to Mina.

Carolyn Schopman, RN

Occupational Health Nurse Manager
410-516-0450 (x6-0450)
Eastern C160 (New Location Aug 2017)
[email protected]

Carol oversees Homewood’s Occupational Health Services, which provides preventive medicine (e.g. vaccinations), medical surveillance (including respirator clearance), first aid and treatment for occupational injuries and illnesses, worker’s compensation services, and health training (e.g. CPR).

 

Transporting chemicals

There is often a need to move chemicals from room to room or between buildings. Hand-carrying hazardous chemicals can introduce a variety of ways that you, others, or the environment can be exposed. It is essential to transport chemicals properly in order to transport them safely. Tips for safe transport include:

  1. Carry bottles or jars in trays or bottle carriers instead of by hand—they are less likely to become broken, and the tray/carrier provides secondary containment.
  2. If using trays, push the tray on a laboratory cart instead of carrying it. Suppose you trip while executing the carry? A carried tray would fall and the contents would leak out.
  3. According to the National Academy of Sciences, carts used to transport chemicals should have at least a 2-inch lip to provide adequate containment.
  4. Do not crowd the bottle carrier or tray—trying to put two bottles in a single-bottle carrier or overloading the tray. This makes it more likely something will fall out.
  5. Line the bottom of the tray or carrier with vermiculite or a spill-absorbent pad to help absorb minor leaks.
  6. Bear in mind that some chemicals rapidly degrade or even explode in the presence of strong temperature changes or bright sunlight. Peroxide-forming chemicals are notorious for this if they have built up sufficient hazardous peroxides.
  7. Do not transport incompatible chemicals (e.g., acids and bases) together in the same tray or carrier.
  8. If moving chemicals further than the next lab, bring spill-management supplies along—the same spill kit you would use in your lab. Your quick action to clean up a spill can prevent a complex and expensive response by the JHU hazardous materials team or by the Baltimore Fire Department.
  9. When moving chemicals, it is a good time to verify that they have proper labeling: full chemical name, in English, is required (e.g., “isopropyl alcohol” instead of “IPA”). If there is not sufficient space to do this, use abbreviations and carry a key to the abbreviations with you to give to the new lab. Common chemical names are sufficient; full IUPAC nomenclature is not necessary.
  10. If the chemicals you are moving are heat-sensitive, package them in a box with a cold pack to maintain quality. If the chemicals may become shock-sensitive, consult with the Department of Health, Safety, and Environment before the move.

Inert gases and hypoxia in the lab

Inert gases such as nitrogen and argon are commonly used in our laboratories. If the contents of a cylinder were suddenly released into the laboratory atmosphere, the oxygen content of the air could be reduced below the safe 19.5% level necessary to avoid hypoxia in lab occupants.

Find out how to determine if a worst-case release of inert gas can reduce oxygen concentrations below safe levels and what you can do about the risk in this Safety Note: Inert Gas Safety.

Incompatible chemicals in waste containers

Do you dispose of different types of chemicals? If so, you run the risk of mixing incompatible chemicals together in your waste containers. Refer to this chart (EPAChemicalCompatibilityChart) to help determine what you can put in the same waste container. The chart is fairly complex, but the topic is also fairly complex. Always be sure to use secondary references such as Safety Data Sheets to verify that your chemicals are compatible–the EPA chart is general, not specific.

Situational awareness

Situational awareness is having a “feel” for what’s going on around you—both the current state and how it might or will change in the near future. It’s a complicated topic (refer to Wikipedia for an introduction), but not having it can easily lead to incidents. I had a close call last year that occurred because I lost situational awareness.

I was photographing a worksite for a charity that recruits teams from disparate Howard County organizations varying from the County Police to church groups to employees of a well-known think tank to perform necessary repairs at the homes of the elderly and needy. It was at the latter’s “project house” that I almost got my brains knocked out.

The workers had removed a wheelbarrow full of soil from the yard while installing a new walkway, and they had procured a trailer to haul the soil and other debris away to the county landfill. I was standing at the front of the trailer taking pictures when the team hoisted the heavy wheelbarrow onto the trailer—setting it behind the axle. The resultant forces flipped the front of the trailer upward, and the trailer tongue (the metal bit that attaches to the tow vehicle) missed me by inches.

I had lost situational awareness—I failed to predict exactly what state my surroundings were in and in particular failed to predict how they were about to change. One can attribute part of this close call to “photographer’s hubris,” that is, the feeling that when one is behind the lens, one is indestructible. The major thing I failed to note, though, is that “charity home improvements” really means “construction site operated by amateurs,” and that I should be on my guard for dangerous conditions.

How often have you lost situational awareness—in the lab or on the road, perhaps? What was the result—did you have a close call, were there no consequences, or was there some sort of incident? What was the deciding factor in what the consequences were—chance?

Remember that in the lab we are all amateurs—so keep an eye on what you and your labmates are doing at all times.

New “Safety in Academic Chemistry Labs” edition published

The American Chemical Society has revised the commonly-used Safety in Academic Chemistry Laboratories for its eighth edition. All those who handle chemicals should be familiar with the information in this small booklet, although it is aimed particularly at first- and second-year chemistry students. Hardcopies can be ordered from the American Chemical Society (http://www.acs.org) or a free PDF can be downloaded from here.

Embolisms from high-pressure gas

Using high-pressure air or gases to blow off or dry parts can create embolisms—small bubbles in the bloodstream that cause blockages—if the nozzle comes in contact with your body. The law requires that you use special nozzles designed to prevent this risk. Alternatively, the gas pressure may be limited to allow gas to be used safely to clean and dry parts. The Laboratory Safety Advocate’s office has developed an inexpensive kit to help. Learn more in High Pressure Blow-Off Gas.

Found: “Class 2” laser pointers not as advertised

Click here to view a PDF write-up of the incident.

An academic department turned over two green laser presenters labeled “Class 2″ to the Homewood Laser Safety Advocate for evaluation because one seemed “too bright.” Normally, a Class 2 laser presentation pointer should put out no more than 1 milliwatt of energy.

Both presenters were found to be putting out more than 10 times the allowable amount of energy, including energy in the invisible infrared range, which is more dangerous. (Green laser pointers are actually infrared lasers that use special optics to generate green light from the IR.) The Laser Safety Advocate tested several additional pointers from that department, finding them all in conformance with their markings. The overpowered pointers were disposed.

The overpowered pointers were actually hazardous Class 3B lasers which should not be used in an uncontrolled lecture or presentation setting. Homewood limits the power of laser pointers to Class 2; testing has shown that brighter pointers are not necessary in any lecture hall on campus. The class of a laser device is stamped on a small yellow or white sticker on the product.

These were name-brand laser pointers purchased from nonstandard sources (e.g., online auction sites); we are as yet unsure whether they were genuine branded products that are off-specification or if they were counterfeit. Please buy all laser pointers from standard JHU-approved sources such as Office Depot; unusual distribution channels are more likely to sell counterfeit or otherwise out-of-specification products. A sample of the sample laser presenter purchased from a JHU-preferred vendor measured within normal safe tolerances.

In 2013, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) found that 90% of green laser pointers and 44% of red laser pointers were out of compliance with federal safety regulations and their markings.

If you have a laser pointer that seems too bright, especially if it is green, contact the Homewood Laser Safety Advocate, Niel Leon, [email protected]. He can test your laser pointer and return it to you if it is safe to use (or help you find a source for a safe one if it’s not).

See the HSE Guidance Document on laser pointers, as well as this fact sheet(Laser pointer fact sheet v9-170725FNL), for more details.

Unattended experiments

Some experiments take time: hours, days, even weeks. This means that the experiment will be set up and running in the lab while you are not there. You have an ethical obligation to prevent harm to others in the lab by ensuring that they are aware of your experiment and its hazards. Make sure they know:

  • What the purpose of the experiment is;
  • To whom it belongs;
  • What behavior indicates that something has gone wrong; and
  • What to do if something does go wrong.

You could tell the members of the lab all that information, but some lab members might not be present and others will promptly forget. Depending on the lab’s occupants to “know what’s going on” is foolish—your colleagues may know the general type of research you do but they are not familiar with the details of all your experiments. Far better is to post the information so that anyone in the lab can easily see what your experiment is, how to identify abnormal situations, and what to do in that event.

A sample form is available for you to use directly or adapt to your lab’s needs. (The file is in Word format for easy modification.) The form is written to allow use in teaching as well as research labs. You should prepare two copies of the form: one to post near the experimental apparatus and one to post in a safe place (like on the door). In an emergency, no one may be willing to approach the apparatus to read the information sheet!