About Global Documents
Global Documents provides you with documents from around the globe on a variety of topics for your enjoyment.
Global Documents utilizes edocr for all its document needs due to edocr's wonderful content features. Thousands of professionals and businesses around the globe publish marketing, sales, operations, customer service and financial documents making it easier for prospects and customers to find content.
ENN
http://ehs.stanford.edu/aboutus/news.html
EH&S News & Notes
ENVIRONMENTAL
HEALTH & SAFETY
Edition 1: April 2006
Weed Abatement Minimizes
Fire Hazards
The Stanford Weed Abatement Program, managed
by the Grounds Department, is an annual eff ort
to control the abundant grasses and weeds
throughout the campus. When the grasses dry
out, they become fuel for wildfi res. Each year over
$80,000 is spent to abate this potential fi re hazard.
It begins every March when two employees
equipped with tractors and fl ail mowers begin
in the Arboretum areas to the north and work
south to the faculty staff areas of the campus. By
April, two additional employees follow behind the
mowers using weed eaters in areas inaccessible
to the tractors. In June the crews have completed
work in the foothill area, discing fi rebreaks as well
as mowing in sensitive areas where reforestation
and revegetation studies are ongoing. Additional
eff orts for mowing and cleaning areas continue
throughout the summer.
All of these eff orts help minimize the risk of fi re
by removing fuels and creating defensible spaces
around buildings and especially homes in the
wildland-urban interface area along Junipero
Serra Blvd.
While the Stanford campus experiences several
small vegetation fi res each year, the memory of
the July 10, 1992 fi re that scorched 500 acres in
the foothills is still fresh. The lessons learned from
that fi re were incorporated into the way areas are
protected today. If you live in a wildland-urban
interface area, there are several precautions that
you should be taking to protect your property.
Visit the California Department of Forestry & Fire
Protection website at http://fi re.ca.gov to learn
more.
A New MSDS Service
Stanford Researchers will soon have a new tool to
fi nd information on the chemicals they use. EH&S
is switching vendors for the Materials Safety Data
Sheet (MSDS) system it supports, from AOS to
ChemWatch.
ChemWatch covers more chemicals than AOS did,
and for each chemical it provides more informa-
tion. In fact, it provides the largest database of in-
dependently researched chemical information in
the world. ChemWatch contains more than 40,000
pure substances and 85,000 common mixtures in-
cluding drugs, biologics, fuel cleaners and more.
In addition to name, product, synonym and CAS
searching, ChemWatch also off ers chemical struc-
ture and sub-structure searching. Its MSDSs and
reports are available in over 20 languages.
ChemWatch will be available for Stanford faculty,
staff and students through ChemTracker on or
around June 1. Information on ChemWatch can
be found on the ChemWatch site, www.chem-
watchna.com . More information will be available
in the near future through the ChemTracker user
forum, and the EH&S web page.
Compliance
According to a recent article by Environmental
Health & Engineering (www.theinc.com) concerning
safety compliance issues in biotech companies and
research laboratories across the US, examples of of-
ten-encountered compliance violations include:
• Improper chemical container labeling/storage.
• Improper hazardous waste labeling – (chemical
labels with abbreviations, no hazard listed, and
no dates).
• Outdated, unused chemicals still on the shelf.
• Improperly labeled and maintained Satellite
Accumulation
Areas
(SAAs)
and Main
Accumulation Area (MAA).”
The Approach
While training is often the fi rst response of a training
specialist, all agreed that a diff erent approach would
work here. First, not everyone looks forward to a
nice long online training course. Secondly, lab work-
ers already know the standard rules and procedures
for safety compliance. Additionally, when lab work-
ers do express questions about container labeling
or hazardous material management, the questions
tended to focus on special cases and circumstances,
not the everyday fare. So EH&S focused their videos
on special cases, delivered the content and kept the
delivery very short.
The videos are available through the EH&S website
at: https://ehsprod.stanford.edu/safetyvideos/index.
html , and (for those who have video iPods) through
the Stanford iTunes site at: http://itunes.stanford.edu/
community/ .
EH&S will add new videos as we complete them.
We’re also open to suggestions for videos or addi-
tional compliance support. Write rbedgar@stanford.
edu with any suggestions.
EH&S News & Notes
Edition 1: April 2006
Page 2
Unwasted Art
EH&S has partnered with the Cantor Center for
Visual Arts as campus welcomes artist Steven Siegel
(http://stevensiegel.net) to Stanford to create an
outdoor sculpture that will utilize discarded digital
and electronic waste. Peninsula Sanitary Service,
Inc. (PSSI) and EH&S helped a group of students
called the Stanford University Panel on Outdoor Art
amass the material needed for Mr. Siegel to create
a potentially large (but temporary) sculpture. The
sculpture was constructed on the front lawn of the
Cummings Art Building during the week of April
23rd, and will remain there for several weeks.
Pre-Reality Shows
By the time someone in a laboratory has an acci-
dent, it’s too late. A reality show that presents what
happened…would miss the important stuff . Had to
be there?…well, no thanks. Had to be there before
something happens…that’s the focus.
EH&S, working with the Medical School, is taking a
new approach to safety compliance training. Instead
of developing long training courses, we developed
a set of short videos—between 20 seconds and six
minutes apiece—and put them online, where any-
one with a SuNet ID can view them whenever they
want.
http://ehs.stanford.edu/aboutus/news.html
EH&S News & Notes
ENVIRONMENTAL
HEALTH & SAFETY
Edition 1: April 2006
Weed Abatement Minimizes
Fire Hazards
The Stanford Weed Abatement Program, managed
by the Grounds Department, is an annual eff ort
to control the abundant grasses and weeds
throughout the campus. When the grasses dry
out, they become fuel for wildfi res. Each year over
$80,000 is spent to abate this potential fi re hazard.
It begins every March when two employees
equipped with tractors and fl ail mowers begin
in the Arboretum areas to the north and work
south to the faculty staff areas of the campus. By
April, two additional employees follow behind the
mowers using weed eaters in areas inaccessible
to the tractors. In June the crews have completed
work in the foothill area, discing fi rebreaks as well
as mowing in sensitive areas where reforestation
and revegetation studies are ongoing. Additional
eff orts for mowing and cleaning areas continue
throughout the summer.
All of these eff orts help minimize the risk of fi re
by removing fuels and creating defensible spaces
around buildings and especially homes in the
wildland-urban interface area along Junipero
Serra Blvd.
While the Stanford campus experiences several
small vegetation fi res each year, the memory of
the July 10, 1992 fi re that scorched 500 acres in
the foothills is still fresh. The lessons learned from
that fi re were incorporated into the way areas are
protected today. If you live in a wildland-urban
interface area, there are several precautions that
you should be taking to protect your property.
Visit the California Department of Forestry & Fire
Protection website at http://fi re.ca.gov to learn
more.
A New MSDS Service
Stanford Researchers will soon have a new tool to
fi nd information on the chemicals they use. EH&S
is switching vendors for the Materials Safety Data
Sheet (MSDS) system it supports, from AOS to
ChemWatch.
ChemWatch covers more chemicals than AOS did,
and for each chemical it provides more informa-
tion. In fact, it provides the largest database of in-
dependently researched chemical information in
the world. ChemWatch contains more than 40,000
pure substances and 85,000 common mixtures in-
cluding drugs, biologics, fuel cleaners and more.
In addition to name, product, synonym and CAS
searching, ChemWatch also off ers chemical struc-
ture and sub-structure searching. Its MSDSs and
reports are available in over 20 languages.
ChemWatch will be available for Stanford faculty,
staff and students through ChemTracker on or
around June 1. Information on ChemWatch can
be found on the ChemWatch site, www.chem-
watchna.com . More information will be available
in the near future through the ChemTracker user
forum, and the EH&S web page.
Compliance
According to a recent article by Environmental
Health & Engineering (www.theinc.com) concerning
safety compliance issues in biotech companies and
research laboratories across the US, examples of of-
ten-encountered compliance violations include:
• Improper chemical container labeling/storage.
• Improper hazardous waste labeling – (chemical
labels with abbreviations, no hazard listed, and
no dates).
• Outdated, unused chemicals still on the shelf.
• Improperly labeled and maintained Satellite
Accumulation
Areas
(SAAs)
and Main
Accumulation Area (MAA).”
The Approach
While training is often the fi rst response of a training
specialist, all agreed that a diff erent approach would
work here. First, not everyone looks forward to a
nice long online training course. Secondly, lab work-
ers already know the standard rules and procedures
for safety compliance. Additionally, when lab work-
ers do express questions about container labeling
or hazardous material management, the questions
tended to focus on special cases and circumstances,
not the everyday fare. So EH&S focused their videos
on special cases, delivered the content and kept the
delivery very short.
The videos are available through the EH&S website
at: https://ehsprod.stanford.edu/safetyvideos/index.
html , and (for those who have video iPods) through
the Stanford iTunes site at: http://itunes.stanford.edu/
community/ .
EH&S will add new videos as we complete them.
We’re also open to suggestions for videos or addi-
tional compliance support. Write rbedgar@stanford.
edu with any suggestions.
EH&S News & Notes
Edition 1: April 2006
Page 2
Unwasted Art
EH&S has partnered with the Cantor Center for
Visual Arts as campus welcomes artist Steven Siegel
(http://stevensiegel.net) to Stanford to create an
outdoor sculpture that will utilize discarded digital
and electronic waste. Peninsula Sanitary Service,
Inc. (PSSI) and EH&S helped a group of students
called the Stanford University Panel on Outdoor Art
amass the material needed for Mr. Siegel to create
a potentially large (but temporary) sculpture. The
sculpture was constructed on the front lawn of the
Cummings Art Building during the week of April
23rd, and will remain there for several weeks.
Pre-Reality Shows
By the time someone in a laboratory has an acci-
dent, it’s too late. A reality show that presents what
happened…would miss the important stuff . Had to
be there?…well, no thanks. Had to be there before
something happens…that’s the focus.
EH&S, working with the Medical School, is taking a
new approach to safety compliance training. Instead
of developing long training courses, we developed
a set of short videos—between 20 seconds and six
minutes apiece—and put them online, where any-
one with a SuNet ID can view them whenever they
want.