We are in the business of education.  Teaching is one of the three cornerstones of academic tenure and advancement: research, teaching and service.  I would like to include safety as one of those cornerstones.  Research, teaching, service and safety should all be evaluated when deciding tenure and promotion.  Unfortunately tenure and promotion of faculty is most often decided by research only with little emphasis on teaching or service and safety is completely left out of the equation.

Complete details

Nitrogen is a colorless, odorless gas at room temperature that becomes and extremely cold liquid under pressure. It is a valuable coolant in research laboratories because of its low boiling point, inexpensive price, and low toxicity. Commonly, cryogenic liquids such as liquid nitrogen can cause very severe burns upon eye or skin contact. Your eyes are very sensitive to the extreme cold of liquid nitrogen and its vapors.  Splashes are common when handling liquid nitrogen therefore safety goggles with a full face shield must be worn at all times when working with this material. Wearing loose fitting thermal gloves , a lab coat, closed toed shoes and pants without cuffs are also strongly recommended.

Complete details

Have you ever walked into a biomedical laboratory and seen a full sharps container.  Was it so full that it looked like a floral arrangement?  Some people think they can still fit more sharps in it if they just shake the box up a bit to make room.  This is a great way to incur a needlestick with an unknown contaminated sharp or inhale a cloud of aerosolized biohazardous particles.  Needlesticks are a common type of accident reported to Occupational Health Services at IUPUI.  Some of these needlesticks occur because of the improper disposal of contaminated sharps.  The CDC’s Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories manual (BMBL 5^th ed.) and OSHA’s Bloodborne Pathogens Standard cover accident prevention by discussing proper contaminated sharps disposal.  Since the BMBL is the gold standard for safe microbiological technique, the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard adopted their regulations based on BMBL practices. 

Complete details

EHS staff recently discovered an interesting case study while conducting laboratory safety inspections.  Most of the laboratories in the inspected facility are outfitted with storage cabinets and fume hoods dating back to an extensive renovation project in 1985.  These cabinets and fume hoods are lined with 1/4” thick transite panels for added protection and durability.

Transite is a hard, fireproof composite fiber cement board well known for its fire proofing abilities and chemical resistance.  Into the 1980’s, transite was commonly produced with concentration of 12-50% asbestos fibers bound together with cement. While asbestos was removed from many building materials in the late 1970’s, its use continued well into the 1980’s as is seen in this particular case study.

Complete details