School of Life Sciences
Health, Safety and Environment Group
JMS 3B11
Thursday 12th May
10am – 12 noon
Ref HSE No 17
In attendance: Professor Laurence Pearl Dr Eddy Viseux, Dr Stephen Pearce, Dr
Martyn Stenning, Mr Geoff Ward, Mr Graham Frost, Dr Teresa Knapp, Ms Sara
Hinchliffe, Miss Fiona Hurd (secretary).
1. Apologies for Absence
None
2. Acceptance of Minutes from the Previous Meeting
Minutes of the 14th October 2010 were accepted
3. Matters Arising from the Previous Meeting
We are still waiting for the replacement waste traps for sinks for radioactive
disposal to be fitted.
Dr Teresa Knapp is working with Geoff Ward on the letters of appointment for
the Health and Safety positions within the school.
Professor Tim Flowers Acetylene cylinder has now been removed.
Professor Tony Carr will be responsible for the gamma cell irradiator when
Professor Alan Lehmann leaves.
Action: Professor Laurence Pearl to make Professor Carr aware of this.
Professor Pearl still needs to raise the issue of incorporating a Health and Safety
talk into the UG induction programme with the other Science School Heads.
4. Safety Information and Reports
(a) University Safety Committee
Nothing to report
(b) Radiation Protection Sub-Committee
Nothing to report
(c) School Safety Advisor
Life Sciences safety plan 2011/12 has been drafted and submitted (TK and
SP).
Joint Management and Union Safety Inspections: Major improvements to
inspections are the start of weekly intensive half day (unannounced) joint
management and union safety inspections, rather than the large and infrequent
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inspections which have occurred in the past.
Work in the school of Life Sciences involves work with various combinations
of chemical, biological, radioactive and electrical hazards. Inspection reports
have a broad circulation to enable efficient action and to also enable good
practice to be encouraged throughout the school. Generally the facilities are
adequate and standards are improving throughout the school. The worst area
by far was a lab in chemistry where the number, combination and severity of
hazards posed a severe and immediate risk to workers and resulted in an
immediate and total laboratory closure. Work is still underway to get electrical
equipment up to the minimum standards. Areas still to be inspected are the
GDSC which will be carried out in the next few weeks. Activity will then
continue in the form of follow-up inspections to encourage improvements and
compliance.
Waste: New procedures for disposal of level 1 biological waste are now
implemented. These go directly for incineration without prior autoclaving
with considerable savings to handling, servicing and energy costs.
Training: Inductions. I have carried out all staff and PG inductions that are
notified to me by the school office. I have time and resources to provide the
training but not to identify new arrivals or monitor the process. Graham Frost
continues to do an excellent job in providing this training for Genome centre
staff and students.
Safety Advisor Training (me!): I have enrolled on the NEBOSH National
General Certificate by distance learning and hope to have this completed in
2012.
Biological Safety: The annual review of the GM projects will start soon and
should be completed by the end of September 2011-05-11.
(d) Environment Report
Martyn attended 2 workshops on the Sustainable Laboratory April 2009 & March
2011
There has been a 13.23% drop in electricity use in the last 4 complete years. JMS
and Genome are heavy users of I looked for energy saving alternatives
o e.g. power saving plugs on fridges
We can save on more efficient freezers The University of Newcastle has found it
worthwhile to pay centrally to replace all -80 freezers over 10 years old (and did
so with a very energy efficient model which had no price premium due to bulk
purchasing), New Brunswick -80 freezers have best performance.
Action: Martyn to put together costs for buying new freezers
Utilities statistics
The first 2 quarters of the current financial year show an increase on previous year
o 9.63% Aug – Oct
o 10.69 Nov-Jan
Gas shows a consistent increase, but records are incomplete
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Electricity is recharged at 7.93 pence per unit
JMS spent £129,322 on electricity during 2009-2010
o Compared with £149,031 during 2006-2007
o A saving of £19,717 (approx £18,000 per annum
(e) Biological Safety Committee
Nothing to report
(f) Human Tissue Committee
Committee has not met yet. Dr Teresa Knapp has now completed her online
training. It was agreed to move the HTA information on the web site to the
governance section on the site and she is working with bsms and the research
office on University guidance for HTA.
5. Staff/Student Training
Dr Eddy Viseux developing this for chemistry students and will be incorporated
into the undergraduate student safety induction
6. Accidents and Incidents (incl fire drill report)
Gas system failure CRPC asphyxiation risk, 8/2/11: Tubing connecting a tissue
culture cabinet to two large nitrogen cylinders failed causing the rapid efflux of the
contents of both cylinders. This happened out of hours but this would have
represented a major risk of asphyxiation. Pipework was immediately improved .
Much of our pipework is not up to standard and oxygen monitors/alarms are
therefore required in rooms where asphyxiants are used.
Phenol burn Life Sciences, 23/3/11: An ecology PG student (Supervisors S.
Hartley/M. Ramsey)received skin burns due to putting a bare arm on a bench in
Chemistry which contained a residue of spilt phenol crystals. This highlights the
need for PPE to be worn in all laboratory areas throughout the school. The almost
universal lack of academic support for this most fundamental form of safety
equipment is responsible for the almost complete absence of the wearing of lab
coats during laboratory work throughout the school. Lack of supervision is also
raised as an issue as the main supervisor (Sue Hartley) had moved to York and cosupervisor (Mike Ramsay) was not in the building.
Bin fire JMS3C6, 5/4/11: A fire was discovered burning in a box of waste pipette
tips in a large, communal open access lab. It was quickly extinguished by a worker
but it is still unclear how the fire started as there appeared to not be anyone working
in the laboratory at the time. The issue of security was raised as a result of this
incident and there is scope for improving security and limiting access to research
areas thoughout the school.
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Incident reporting: It is clear that a number of incidents are not reported through the
Sussex Direct system. I will continue to work to improve the proportion of
incidents that are formally reported.
There was no fire drill report as a fire drill had not taken place. It was requested that
a fire drill takes place in the Summer preferably on a day when there is teaching.
Geoff Ward is to organize this.
7. Any Other Business
Facilities guidance notes
Dr Knapp commented that other universities put together guidance notes for their
facilities. Mark Roe has already done this for Xray Crystallography and Iain Day
is in the process of doing it for NMR. It was agreed that it should be done for the
other facilities and the notes should be put on the web site.
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