Safety Update

"Green Boards," Beamline Safety Envelopes, BLOSA Update

January 29, 2009

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

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Each year around this time, we ask beamline personnel and laboratory stewards to review and update the hazard information placards posted in their areas to satisfy our need to keep these postings current. These placards or "Green Boards" provide basic information about the hazards that can be encountered in the areas where they are posted. The information conveyed is particularly important to the BNL Emergency Services personnel as they look at these boards during event response for guidance and to determine the precautions needed for area entry. If you have responsibility for a posted area, please review the content of your board, make any necessary updates, and remember to change the revision date. The Operations Staff will check these boards after the winter shut down and have been instructed only to enable beamlines once the boards have been updated. Please help us avoid delays and update the Green Boards well before the first experiments in 2009 begin.

A project to improve identification of the risks associated with beamline operation and experiment setup has begun. We are scheduling meetings with each beamline local contact for discussion about the equipment and routine tasks at the line. The meetings focus on generating written envelopes to characterize the risks presented by routine beamline operation and to answer a set of questions to develop new Beam Line Operations Safety Awareness (BLOSA) forms for user training. We've started on the x-ray floor with the completion of meetings at four beamlines. The meetings are being scheduled by Mary Anne Corwin, who attends along with Lori Stiegler, and require about an hour of time at the beamline with some follow-up email and discussion.

The goal of this project is to improve safety management at the beamlines through hazard identification, user training, and recognition of error precursors or traps. The BLOSA program has been a key component of our training efforts for several years and this update will result in greatly improved forms that provide both general- and beamline-specific safety information. The Safety Envelope part of the project is new, so we are still working on the format and on how best to use those documents. Development of the envelopes will help us identify critical tasks that require extra attention to avoid mistakes that could lead to injuries. We want to find tasks that can be improved through the use of procedures or checklists, or circumstances that can be changed to avoid confusion or distraction. In other words, we want to find the next injury-likely situation before an injury occurs. Suggestions and comments are welcome.