Name Phone e-mail

Becky Delacruz , EH&S representative 4943 bdelacruz@ccmail.nevada.edu

Gary Cerefice 2612 cerefice@unlv.edu

Patricia Cruz 1417 cruzp@unlv.edu

Kate Hahn 1404 khahn@unlv.edu

Amy Smiecinski 1420 smiecins@unlv.edu

Shelley Williams 1445 williams@med.unr.edu

Jim Cizdziel for Ingrid Wengatz 1462 wengatz@unlv.edu

Susan Murphy 1411 smurphy@unlv.edu

Old Business:

1. Staff Changes at EH&S: A new Radiation Safety Officer has been hired. His name is Mr. Tom O’Dou. Paul Harvey is staying on awhile to help.

2. Open Issues: The safety lights discussed at the last several meetings were not installed. There was a misunderstanding that perhaps HRC already had safety lights, but it was clarified that there are no safety lights of any form in the laboratories. Becky is going to discuss this with Ed Gannon and get any work orders necessary submitted. The labs that HRC has been trying to get safety lights installed in are HRC-208*, -203, -201, 219, -306, -308, -312*, -416*, -102, MSM-181, -164*, -167, -165, -173, and –172*. *-labs, have more than one room in them. This issue is over a year old.

CPR training for HRC personnel may be obtained in one of two ways. Someone could coordinate the class set up with Pep Brashear at a cost of $10 per person. Becky said she will let HRC know when Student Health has its CPR class and see if we can piggyback personnel onto that class.

3. Safety Committee Membership: Susan Murphy has joined the committee as a representative of Archeology. It is anticipated that a representative of Ornithology will join the committee for the next meeting.

4. Improper Storage – Obstruction of Emergency Exits: The hallway in the first floor lab area adjacent to MSM 165, “Sample Control” has been cleared of field equipment storage to an acceptable level. Gary spoke to Jim about keeping an eye on the amount of items stored in the hall to prevent obstruction and suggested a nearby niche as an alternative for storage.

5. Field Communication: Becky checked with Public Safety on the feasibility of buying or borrowing radios for HRC to use. The radios are available from Public Safety to try in the field but probably will not have the coverage that a cell phone will have for work outside the Las Vegas Valley. The issues then become, the individual principal investigators (PIs) need to plan cell phone costs into budgets; and when paying the monthly service bill, the PI must provide a written justification for the phone usage, which seems like an unnecessary requirement; and some cell providers to not cover outlying areas of Nevada as well as others. The committee asked, and Becky agreed, to look into the origin of the monthly letter requirement and whether it can be eliminated.

New Business:

1. Additional Information – Training: There is a concern about infrequent availability of mandatory safety training courses provided for UNLV employees. Right-to-Know training classes are not offered very often and Chemical Hygiene classes have to be requested and coordinated. Most of the training offered by EH&S seems to be aimed at Facilities Management personnel. Becky said that starting in July, the Right-to-Know training became part of the New Employee Orientation so from that time forward, every new employee will be captured for that training, but they still need to backtrack on existing employees who never received it.

It was also mentioned that the communication of mandatory radiation safety courses is poor – and uses different HRC points of contact. The impression was that Rad-Safety has a separate training coordinator, Becky informed us that all EH&S training falls under Pep Brashear. It was suggested that Becky invite Pep to an HRC Safety Committee meeting to hear some of our concerns and suggestions. It is not easy to access safety training and policy information. A classic example of lost policy was the issuance a few years back of safe electric cart routes on the UNLV campus. Everyone remembers the issuance, but nobody has a copy and nobody knows where to find it.

A training course for blood-borne pathogens is available by request with either Becky or Pep. There is a Cart Safety committee and they are hoping to come out with a published policy and training course.

2. HRC Room Numbers: HRC room numbers changed in the last few weeks. Becky will check with Rowena Gonzalez (rad safety) and Brenda Burt (chemical inventories) to assure that the changes do not adversely impact their work.

3. Homeland Security: Checklists were provided by Gary and passed out to members to see what the Homeland Security inspectors are looking for. Every facility on campus is being inspected and inventoried to see if UNLV has any security issues. At this time the effort is purely an evaluation, not an enforcement action.

A declaration process will occur in the next few weeks. This will involve declaring the ownership or use of “special agents”. Personnel will be notified of the reporting requirements and be provided with a list of what qualifies as a special agent.

4. Procurement of Hazardous Substances: In the near future, biological material purchases will be treated the same as chemical purchases requiring a safety review. At HRC at least one project receives medical isolates external to the purchasing process.

5. Guns and Reloading Materials: An e-mail printout was given to the committee to pass on to the new Ornithology representative concerning an insurance inspection and resulting concerns regarding the use of guns and reloading equipment at HRC. Public Safety has declared all previously issued gun permits must be renewed. Recommendations from EH&S are that NO SMOKING and NO OPEN FLAMES signs be posted; the room where these materials reside be locked when not in use; and the smokeless powder be kept in original containers.

6. UNLV Band Practice Safety: The band truck has been parking in the lot south of HRC blocking the egress of emergency vehicles. In addition, the band members loiter behind cars making it difficult to safely back out of parking spaces. Becky said she would talk to the appropriate personnel to alleviate the problem.

7. Scheduling of Next Meeting: The next meeting will be no later than the end of November 2002.

Meeting termination:

The meeting was ended at 9:30

Meeting Minutes Distribution:

Committee members

HRC personnel