Attendance: Jennifer Stone, Jean Richter, Katie Robbins,
Phill Guillory, Elise Mills, Chris Williams, Ferenc Kovac, Leon Tsao, Scott
McNally, Mark Davis
Each year all employees and students must take the
IIPP/BEP training. Training is complete
when you have read and submitted your response via the online forms. This is required by EH&S and OSHA.
Mark provided a printed
report listing all Cory Occupants who had thus far completed the online
form. The results were approx. 100
people had completed the form, which is not that good when compared to total
building occupancy. Leon mentioned it might be a good idea to introduce
incentives to get these forms completed, such as holding supervisors
responsible for their staff.
Mark reported that all labs and shops completed the
appropriate inspection forms for the 2004 year. The safety committee reviewed Mark’s summary as well as the
summary of inspections provided by EH&S.
Most labs were shown to have relatively few problems. However, the 155/157 labs of Cory Hall were
found to have numerous safety issues.
Mark assured the safety committee that he is aware of this problem area
and is working with the lab occupants to get it cleaned up.
To summarize, the most common
deficiencies found within Cory Hall labs are:
1) Improper chemical storage; 2) Hallway/walkway obstructions; 3)
Extension cords being used as permanent power sources; 4)
Refrigerators/microwaves/sinks not properly labeled to determine appropriate
use; and 5) Expired hygiene plans and chemical inventories. (Please note that all hygiene plans and
inventories had been updated by the time this meeting took place in March
2005).
Mark provided safety committee members in attendance with
his most updated list of all lab safety officers and their alternates. This list includes daytime and after-hours
contact information. This list is
continually being updated. If you would
like a new list, please contact Mark at eecs.berkeley.edu and he can
forward you one.
Mark reviewed the list and
pointed out that for some labs, alternates were missing and that for a few new
labs, no designated officers existed yet.
Additionally, safety committee members in attendance pointed out a few
minor corrections that Mark has thus applied to his master copy of this list.
Mark mentioned that Loretta and Elise need a backup
for the Hearst/Gayley intersection.
Ferenc and Katie both volunteered to be the back up for this
position.
Phill mentioned his confusion regarding Cory Hall’s old
evacuation committee, which was responsible for helping to evacuate Cory Hall
during emergencies. Mark responded that
since Cory Hall has a new alarm system with audible and visual indicators
throughout the building, that there is no longer a need for an evacuation
committee. All occupants are to exit
the building using the most direct route.
No one should stay behind to help warn or evacuate occupants.
As a result of this conversation, the issue of
handicapped evacuation was brought-up.
Typically, there are only a handful of handicapped individuals in Cory
Hall at any given time. Usually they
will be responsible for evacuating themselves to the nearest stairway
landing. If they are severely
handicapped or injured, their co-workers are to assist them to these stairwell
landings. Mark has a list of who these people are and will direct emergency
personnel that there are “x” amount of handicapped people within the building
and this stairwell is their probable location.
It would then be the emergency personnel’s responsibility to evacuate
the handicapped person(s).
Mark reviewed with safety
committee members his inventory of safety supplies. Vests, stop signs, and traffic cones are available in his
office. Katie suggested the purchase of
earplugs and traffic/police whistles, as they are useful tools in emergency
situations. Mark will pursue the
purchase of these items.
Mark reviewed the results of the recent portable
radio test. All walkie-talkies are
functional within Cory Hall except for radio # 4670. Mark is working with CNS to get this replaced with a functioning
unit. Current Cory Hall radio
assignments are:
|
NAME |
CALL # |
PHONE # |
RADIO # |
SERIAL # |
|
Mark Davis-SPARE Ben Lake Chris Williams Bob Hamilton Mark Davis-SPARE Ferenc Kovac Gus Monino Katie Robbins Jo Davis Elise Mills STOLEN Mark Davis Scott McNally |
1341 1342 1343 1344 1345 1346 1347 1348 1349 1350 1351 1352 1353 |
2-1468 3-8400 2-0253 2-2716 2-1468 2-6952 2-9808 2-2302 3-6619 3-6682 2-1527 3-7949 2-9888 |
4680 4678 4677 4673 4670 4683 4671 4686 4669 4679 4684 4685 4682 |
1108 1106 1103 1102 1107 1105 1100 1101 0169 1110 1104 1111 1112 |
Mark reminded the safety committee of the need to
remove and reseat the walkie-talkie units at least once per week. This is because the unit’s charge slowly
dies while sitting in the charging cradle and the cradle doesn’t sense this
(probably because it was built to charge to full and then turn-off). The only way for the charging cradle to
sense that the units need charging is remove and reseat the unit.
Additionally, Mark still
needs to supply all person(s) with an assigned walkie-talkie with a new label
listing updated information that they can tape to the walkie-talkie units.
Safety Committee reviewed current and outstanding
issues existing within the Cory Hall hazardous communications plan. Many of the outstanding issues revolved
around a visit by the fire marshal listing deficiencies within Cory. To summarize, ERL has many filing cabinets
on the first floor mezzanine requiring removal from the passageway. Many doors within Cory Hall that connect
main corridors to sub-corridors, or doors to large rooms or suites are
typically supposed to remain closed to prevent fire from spreading. This means door stops and wedges should be
removed. There were many questions
about how to determine if it is necessary to remove doorstops from certain
doors. Scott McNally and Mark Davis are
available for consultation regarding this.
Other outstanding safety
issues are the remodeling of the 218 lab.
This work is to be completed at the end of the spring semester
2005. Additionally, Ferenc has
requested Mark and Scott review certain safety issues he may have in some of
his labs concerning fire egress, etc.
Scott wanted to review the
agenda for this annual meeting to determine if any changes should be made to
the safety material being presented to incoming graduate students. Mark is still looking for the agenda and will
forward it to the safety committee if found.
Instead of reviewing the agenda, Mark took suggestions on ways to
possibly improve the way the safety material is presented. Ferenc provided the excellent idea of
recording the presentation and having it available to view on our dept.
website. If there are any additional
suggestions, please forward them to Mark.
Katie from the 1st floor Mezzanine brought up the
concern of the floor’s occupants regarding truck and tractor fumes from the
heavy traffic in that area related to the new CITRIS building project. Mark and Scott are the point of contact in
regards to any concerns building occupants may have about this project. Mark will then contact the project manager
of the project to remedy the problem.
In Katie’s case, the project manager was able to reroute the street
sweeper truck that would continually pass behind Cory.
Ferenc had concerns over egress issue from within 140
to 140A/B. He was inquiring about the
requirements to leave certain doors unlocked if they are considered fire egress
paths. We told him that the doors do
have to remain unlocked from the inside only.
There is still the remaining issue of whether the door from 140 to 188
is considered a fire egress path and should remain unlocked.
Additionally,
Ferenc would like the Fire Marshal to review egress in his 144A/B labs as well
as if there is a need to have a second exit in room 204B if there are less than
20 pp occupying that area.