Safety Update

Working Alone

April 1, 2008

Andrew Ackerman
NSLS ESH/Q Manager
ackerman@bnl.gov

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Review of NSLS policies has led to discussion about personnel working alone in remote areas and the safety concerns that might present. The NSLS complex includes eight buildings and there are remote locations where personnel might need to work alone, even in the active environment of building 725. Personnel have access to most of these areas at all times and are permitted to work alone to provide needed and desired flexibility in scheduling and staffing.

Except during the extended spring and winter maintenance times, operations personnel maintain a presence in experiment areas in building 725 through their routine work and during walkthrough tours. That presence is valuable, but cannot cover all areas. No combination of tours, cameras, or checks can provide constant oversight. Our concern is that someone could be injured and left for an extended time with no help. That risk is low, but real, and we should work to avoid such an event.

The best way to provide oversight is for personnel working alone to establish a contact arrangement with someone willing and able maintain that contact and act if communication is broken. The contact person could be a supervisor, a colleague, BNL security officers, or the NSLS Control Room staff. Of course, the type of work and work area has a great influence on the likelihood of an injury and should determine how often a check with the contact is needed.

All personnel working alone are encouraged to establish a contact arrangement. Some guidelines follow:

• Personnel working alone in office areas or in areas within building 725 that are toured by the operations staff do not necessarily need to establish a contact arrangement. The toured areas include the beamlines and the unlocked set-up laboratories attached to the experiment floor.
• Personnel working alone in non-office areas that are not toured should establish a contact arrangement at the start of their work that includes check-ins with a frequency suitable to the situation. That arrangement must include a final checkout requirement. The goal is to provide reasonable oversight for the solitary worker. The typical contact arrangement will involve a call-in schedule and expected closeout time.
• Once a check-in plan has been established, it is important that the plan be followed, because should communications fail, the contact will have to search for the “missing person,” which presents obvious difficulties. The contact is responsible for remote oversight of the worker and must act if calls are not received at the expected times. If the contact cannot get in touch with the worker as arranged and cannot find the worker at the work site, the contact may consider the arrangement broken and need not continue the search.
• Anyone working alone who prefers to maintain contact with the Control Room, regardless of their circumstances, is welcome to call at any time and arrange a contact plan.