Safety Update

Personnel Changes, BLOSA Training, and Eyewear

September 9, 2009

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

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I expect that many of you have noticed that John Aloi has left the NSLS Environment, Safety, Health & Quality (ESH&Q) group. He is still at the Laboratory, working now in the Radiation Control Division assigned to the Facilities and Operations Directorate. We know he will do well there, but we miss him here. John had been with the group for many years and carried much responsibility for the various ESH&Q programs at the NSLS.

We have rearranged the group and redistributed responsibilities to manage this change. Bob Chmiel is now the NSLS Safety Officer, and in that role he is the first contact for many issues that arise on the experimental floor, including safety system configuration control, user science electrical safety, and work planning review. Experimental ESH review is now being managed by Lori Stiegler and Keith Klaus. They are working together to share responsibility for this difficult program and, just as you helped John, they too will need your help in identifying and controlling the risks presented by the experiments we do. Tom McDonald has been promoted into the ESH&Q group from Operations. Everyone knows Tom from his work as an operations coordinator. The experience he brings from that and other positions he has held at the NSLS will certainly help as he grows into this new job.

Work continues on our update of Beamline Operations and Safety Awareness (BLOSA) training and the development of "safety envelopes" for the beamlines. That project is about three quarters completed and meetings with staff at the remaining beamlines are scheduled for September. Improving BLOSA will help us assure that our users are well oriented and the safety envelope development is helping us identify and control risks that have been previously managed with a more informal approach. There is more to do to make good use of the information we have collected and both of these programs require constant update. This year has been a good start.

And last, I must note here that more cooperation is needed from the user community in meeting the protective eyewear requirements for entry to the set-up laboratories. Please arrive at the NSLS with a pair of safety glasses with side shields and wear them whenever you are in one of the laboratories or working with liquid reagents. If you forget to bring your glasses, we have some you can buy in the stock room. The requirement for wearing glasses upon entry to a laboratory is new, so please pass the word and help us meet this rule. There will be times when wearing glasses in the laboratory will seem unnecessary, but having them on the one time they are needed will make this requirement seem quite reasonable.