Welcoming David Stevenson to the Laboratory & Chemical Safety Team

On August 21st, a small fire occurred in a fume hood while heating a mixture of N-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone (NMP) and cellulose powder in an oil bath on a hot plate. Part of the oil bath was covered with aluminum foil and overheated, causing the oil to overflow out of the bath and contacting an ignition source (the hot plate.) The postdoc and the GRA running the experiment did an excellent job reacting promptly and extinguishing the fire within 15 seconds of it occurring.

EHS encountered a lab in MRDC that was particularly hazardous and required remediation. EHS utilized an outside company, HEPACO, to safely address the situation. On September 28, 2019 HEPACO's Emergency Response Team started working to address the hazardous conditions in the MRDC lab.

The flammable cabinet contained a secondary container with multiple broken bottles, unlabeled or with unreadable labeling, with visible multicolor crystal growth. Labels can become illegible or come off entirely due to age or chemical contamination.

Standard Operating Procedures are an important tool for a number of tasks, especially those involving higher-hazard risks and/or may be conducted by large numbers of researchers.

For the 22nd annual Georgia Tech Earth Day Festival on April 19, 2019, EHS focused on the initiative to improve the functionality of a research building.

The Green Labs Initiative is co-lead by EHS and the Office of Campus Sustainability (OCS) and aims to empower Georgia Tech to optimize resources and facilitate the integration of sustainable practices, while maintaining the highest safety standards.

In recent months, we have had several incidents involving both gas cylinders and cryogenic liquid containers (“dewars”, as they are commonly referred) that have resulted in injuries and/or property damage.  

Here are important safety measures for these containers:

Correct incident reporting results in faster response.

We came up with 3 things that either led to this injury or could have been done better. How many can you come up with? Answers are at the bottom of this article.