Environment, Health, and Safety - WOW Showcase

Environment, Health & Safety WOW Showcase

Changing the Campus CultureChallenge:A 2009 lab researcher fatality at UCLA resulted in strict demands for safetycompliance in research laboratories across the UC System.Changing the Culture:EH&S is addressing this challenge in many ways including new safetytraining, enhanced inspections, and new policies and guidelines. However, thekey to real change is changing the culture to embrace safety.As part of the new Lab Safety Culture Change Initiative, EH&S developed thenew “Safety is Part of Science” logo and is utilizing social media to engagestudents in spreading the message.At the 2012 Caltopia event, the EH&S photo booth offered T-shirts with the newlogo as an incentive to take a photo and ‘like’ the newly launched UC BerkeleyLab Safety Facebook page. Over 600 ‘likes’ were received that day.Caltopia pictures were posted on the page and subsequent contests have keptthe page alive!Caltopia! Come for the T-Shirt—Leave with the Message! New Logo: Safety is Part of Science

EH&S Beats the Odds in Stanley Hall Spill Clean-UpWhat Happened…Early December 2011 as the Holiday Season was gearingup, 1,650 gallons of diesel fuel spilled from an emergencygenerator into the basement of Stanley Hall.Of the 1650 gallons spilled, 850 gallons enteredStrawberry Creek and flowed on into the San FranciscoBay, contaminating creek vegetation and banks alongthe way.Although, according to federal agencies, an oil spillrecovery of 20% is considered successful, by January31, 2012, close to 60% of the oil had been recovered andagencies deemed the spill effectively cleaned up.EH&S staff worked around-the-clock to re-open the buildingin time for final exams and coordinate the extensiveenvironmental cleanup.Thanks!!Credit goes to the EH&S Environmental Protection Team:Greg Haet, Rebecca Andersen, Karl Hans and Tim Pine fortheir heroic efforts!!

EH&S Fire Marshals Contribute to Campus Construction Many on campus may be unaware of the critical role of the Fire Prevention (FP) team in construction. Hundreds of sets of plans must be reviewed for each new building and renovation, and construction sites are frequently inspected. The recent surge of building activity on campus has meant many long hours for the FP team. In the short period of three months in 2012 (May, June, July) they helped to complete projects amounting to a half-billion dollars. The largest of these projects was the Memorial Stadium; 220,509 square feet of interior occupied space and 155,571 sq. ft. of stadium bowl seating. The big challenge was to be ready to open for the first game of the 2012 football season.

Environmental Cleanup Contributes to LBNL Siting New Campus at Richmond Field StationWhen Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) wentlooking for a site to consolidate their biosciencesprograms, UC-owned Richmond Field Station (RFS) was anobvious possible location.One hurdle: the RFS land had been contaminated inyears past by chemical waste from former chemicalmanufacturing and blasting cap companiespreviously located on, or near, the RFS. The red tinged soil developed when former landHowever, for over 10 years the EH&S Environmental owners dumped burned iron pyrite, a metalProtection specialists not only coordinated the extensive recognizable to many as "fools gold" used to make sulfuric acid for an industrial process, on thecleanup and marsh restoration activities required by site.California Environmental Protection Agency, but in 2005launched a website to make remediation documentsavailable to the concerned local community.The extensive documentation of site conditions, effectivecommunity outreach, and significant progress on clean-up activities contributed to UC’s successful bid for theRFS to become the new home of LBNL’s second campus. Clean up results by 2009

Campus Steam Tunnels—Making them Safe Disturbing Situation The campus utility tunnel system carries steam pipes and other utilities through the center of the campus. Because of extreme heat and other safety conditions, the Berkeley Fire Department (BFD) has historically refused to enter the tunnels—even in emergencies. This has been a cause of great concern for PP-CS and other workers who regularly work in the tunnels. Major Efforts Over the past 2 years, EH&S-coordinated improvements have increased the level of safety in the tunnels to such an extent that the BFD used them as classrooms to host 6 Confined Space Entry and Rescue drills for all BFD engine companies in early Winter 2011. Thanks!! Thanks to EH&S Health & Safety Team members Jim Gilson, Roy Waller, and Gary Bayne.

Hazardous Waste Program: A New ModelFor 16 years EH&S was responsible for labeling and disposing ofhazardous waste from labs at UCB.In November 2010 the rules changed and the campus was givena short timeline to provide new procedures and train thousandsof lab researchers on the proper management and labeling ofhazardous materials.A successful transition depended upon easing the burden beingshifted to lab personnel. The collaboration of EH&Sprogramming, training, and hazardous waste managementspecialists resulted in an online training program and aninteractive web-based labeling process.Result: In FY2011-12, over 2,400 researchers were trained andmore than 24,000 items were labeled, picked up and properlydisposed of by EH&S. The deadline was met and significant fineswere successfully avoided.

New EH&S Radiation Safety Officer Carolyn MacKenzie — Nobel Contributor International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohammed ElBaradei and 2,000 staff members were awarded the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize for their “efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy, for peaceful purposes, is used in the safest way possible.” Carolyn MacKenzie was part of the team. In 2004, MacKenzie took a leave of absence from Lawrence Livermore National Lab to take a position with IAEA in Vienna. The mission: locate lost radioactive sources in developing countries. She began in the new nations of the former Soviet Union, then went to the Balkans and China.Carolyn measuring radiation Eventually she served for 4 years in Africa.from a device used to scancargo containers in Ghana. MacKenzie recalls the day the team received news of winning the award. “Everyone was called down to the rotunda and Condoleezza Rice was on the phone congratulating ElBaradei. It was poignant that the group was recognized for keeping peace on the 50th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing.” The staff donated their monetary award to an African food program serving children in need. After almost 8 years of traveling and working in difficult conditions, MacKenzie is happy to pass that baton to others. UCB is fortunate that she has chosen to offer her considerable skills and expertise to address the somewhat less challenging radiation safety issues on campus.

Awards for Systemwide Leadership Charles Borromeo Individuals designated by the University of California Office of the President (UCOP) as a “Center of Excellence” are experts in their field who are willing to create and manage a systemwide program in that field. Hazardous Materials ShippingWhen Charles Borromeo attended his first UCOP Risk Summit, he wascurious about the “Power of 10” award.” Told that it was an award to anorganization or group that develops a program or system that can be utilizedby all ten UC campuses he thought, “Everything I do is that!”. He immediatelydecided to earn the award.In 2010, Borromeo was named a Center of Excellence for HazardousMaterials Shipping. In 2011, he won the Power of 10 award for his leadershipof the Hazardous Materials Shipping and Export Control Workgroup. Thegroup introduced standard and consistent processes making it simpler foreach campus to meet stringent regulatory requirements.The Power of 10 award is only the beginning. Borromeo has set his sightseven higher. “Why not the ‘Power of 15’, or even the ‘Power of 16’ award?This would include all the UC campuses, medical centers and perhaps evenLawrence Berkeley National Lab. I want the University of California to haveone policy on Hazardous Materials Shipping.”

Awards for Systemwide Leadership Jim Gilson Safety Engineering and ManagementJim Gilson was named a Center of Excellence in 2011, and in 2012 hereceived the UCOP Power of 10 Award for leadership of thesystemwide Injury and Illness Prevention Workgroup.He doesn’t feel he can take all the credit. “… I think about it as ashared award with our EH&S Health and Safety team because we aredoing some extraordinary stuff here.”Gilson feels that more needs to be done to benefit other campuses.“Now we have written forms, documents and charters that will lastlonger than I will, and my goal is to fully implement these structures inthe academic and research world.”Despite being a consultant for not just for all ten UC campuses, but formost campuses in North America, Gilson is reluctant to call himself anexpert. “I simply offer a new approach and viewpoint on how tomanage processes and situations. I help to streamline and make themmore cost-effective, incorporating safety into in-line operationsmanagement.”Regarding his success, Gilson attributes it to being able to do what heloves.

Environment, Health, and Safety - WOW Showcase

by B.A.S. on Jan 18, 2013

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Environment, Health, and Safety - WOW Showcase Presentation Transcript