Environment, Health & SafetyWOW Showcase

Challenge: A 2009 lab researcher fatality at UCLA resulted in strict demands for safety compliance in research laboratories across the UC System.

Changing the Culture: EH&S is addressing this challenge in many ways including new safety training, enhanced inspections, and new policies and guidelines. However, the key to real change is changing the culture to embrace safety.

As part of the new Lab Safety Culture Change Initiative, EH&S developed the new “Safety is Part of Science” logo and is utilizing social media to engage students in spreading the message.

At the 2012 Caltopia event, the EH&S photo booth offered T-shirts with the new logo as an incentive to take a photo and ‘like’ the newly launched UC Berkeley Lab Safety Facebook page. Over 600 ‘likes’ were received that day.

Caltopia pictures were posted on the page and subsequent contests have kept the page alive!

New Logo: Safety is Part of Science

Caltopia! Come for the T-Shirt—Leave with the Message!

Changing the Campus Culture

Although, according to federal agencies, an oil spill recovery of 20% is considered successful, by January 31, 2012, close to 60% of the oil had been recovered and agencies deemed the spill effectively cleaned up.

Of the 1650 gallons spilled, 850 gallons entered Strawberry Creek and flowed on into the San Francisco Bay, contaminating creek vegetation and banks along the way.

What Happened…Early December 2011 as the Holiday Season was gearing up, 1,650 gallons of diesel fuel spilled from an emergency generator into the basement of Stanley Hall.

EH&S Beats the Odds in Stanley Hall Spill Clean-Up

EH&S staff worked around-the-clock to re-open the building in time for final exams and coordinate the extensive environmental cleanup.

Thanks!!Credit goes to the EH&S Environmental Protection Team: Greg Haet, Rebecca Andersen, Karl Hans and Tim Pine for their heroic efforts!!

EH&S Fire Marshals Contribute to Campus Construction

Many on campus may be unaware of the critical role of the Fire Prevention (FP) team in construction. Hundreds of sets of plans must be reviewed for each new building and renovation, and construction sites are frequently inspected.

The recent surge of building activity on campus has meant many long hours for the FP team. In the short period of three months in 2012 (May, June, July) they helped to complete projects amounting to a half-billion dollars.

The largest of these projects was the Memorial Stadium; 220,509 square feet of interior occupied space and 155,571 sq. ft. of stadium bowl seating. The big challenge was to be ready to open for the first game of the 2012 football season.

When Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) went looking for a site to consolidate their biosciences programs, UC-owned Richmond Field Station (RFS) was an obvious possible location.

The extensive documentation of site conditions, effective community outreach, and significant progress on clean-up activities contributed to UC’s successful bid for the RFS to become the new home of LBNL’s second campus.

Clean up results by 2009

One hurdle: the RFS land had been contaminated in years past by chemical waste from former chemical manufacturing and blasting cap companies previously located on, or near, the RFS.

However, for over 10 years the EH&S Environmental Protection specialists not only coordinated the extensive cleanup and marsh restoration activities required by California Environmental Protection Agency, but in 2005 launched a website to make remediation documents available to the concerned local community.

The red tinged soil developed when former land owners dumped burned iron pyrite, a metal recognizable to many as "fool's gold" used to make sulfuric acid for an industrial process, on the site.

Environmental Cleanup Contributes to LBNL Siting New Campus at Richmond Field Station

Disturbing SituationThe campus utility tunnel system carries steam pipes and other utilities through the center of the campus. Because of extreme heat and other safety conditions, the Berkeley Fire Department (BFD) has historically refused to enter the tunnels—even in emergencies. This has been a cause of great concern for PP-CS and other workers who regularly work in the tunnels.

Thanks!!Thanks to EH&S Health & Safety Team members Jim Gilson, Roy Waller, and Gary Bayne.

Major EffortsOver the past 2 years, EH&S-coordinated improvements have increased the level of safety in the tunnels to such an extent that the BFD used them as classrooms to host 6 Confined Space Entry and Rescue drills for all BFD engine companies in early Winter 2011.

Campus Steam Tunnels—Making them Safe

For 16 years EH&S was responsible for labeling and disposing of hazardous waste from labs at UCB.In November 2010 the rules changed and the campus was given a short timeline to provide new procedures and train thousands of lab researchers on the proper management and labeling of hazardous materials.

Result: In FY2011-12, over 2,400 researchers were trained and more than 24,000 items were labeled, picked up and properly disposed of by EH&S. The deadline was met and significant fines were successfully avoided.

A successful transition depended upon easing the burden being shifted to lab personnel. The collaboration of EH&S programming, training, and hazardous waste management specialists resulted in an online training program and an interactive web-based labeling process.

Hazardous Waste Program: A New Model

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohammed ElBaradei and 2,000 staff members were awarded the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize for their “efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy, for peaceful purposes, is used in the safest way possible.” Carolyn MacKenzie was part of the team.

In 2004, MacKenzie took a leave of absence from Lawrence Livermore National Lab to take a position with IAEA in Vienna. The mission: locate lost radioactive sources in developing countries. She began in the new nations of the former Soviet Union, then went to the Balkans and China. Eventually she served for 4 years in Africa.

MacKenzie recalls the day the team received news of winning the award. “Everyone was called down to the rotunda and Condoleezza Rice was on the phone congratulating ElBaradei. It was poignant that the group was recognized for keeping peace on the 50th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing.” The staff donated their monetary award to an African food program serving children in need.

After almost 8 years of traveling and working in difficult conditions, MacKenzie is happy to pass that baton to others. UCB is fortunate that she has chosen to offer her considerable skills and expertise to address the somewhat less challenging radiation safety issues on campus.

New EH&S Radiation Safety Officer Carolyn MacKenzie — Nobel Contributor

Carolyn measuring radiation from a device used to scan cargo containers in Ghana.

Hazardous Materials Shipping

When Charles Borromeo attended his first UCOP Risk Summit, he was curious about the “Power of 10” award.” Told that it was an award to an organization or group that develops a program or system that can be utilized by all ten UC campuses he thought, “Everything I do is that!”. He immediately decided to earn the award.

In 2010, Borromeo was named a Center of Excellence for Hazardous Materials Shipping. In 2011, he won the Power of 10 award for his leadership of the Hazardous Materials Shipping and Export Control Workgroup. The group introduced standard and consistent processes making it simpler for each campus to meet stringent regulatory requirements.

The Power of 10 award is only the beginning. Borromeo has set his sights even higher. “Why not the ‘Power of 15’, or even the ‘Power of 16’ award? This would include all the UC campuses, medical centers and perhaps even Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. I want the University of California to have one policy on Hazardous Materials Shipping.”

Awards for Systemwide LeadershipCharles Borromeo

Individuals designated by the University of California Office of the President (UCOP) as a “Center of Excellence” are experts in their field who are willing to create and manage a systemwide program in that field.

Jim Gilson was named a Center of Excellence in 2011, and in 2012 he received the UCOP Power of 10 Award for leadership of the systemwide Injury and Illness Prevention Workgroup.

He doesn’t feel he can take all the credit. “… I think about it as a shared award with our EH&S Health and Safety team because we are doing some extraordinary stuff here.”

Gilson feels that more needs to be done to benefit other campuses. “Now we have written forms, documents and charters that will last longer than I will, and my goal is to fully implement these structures in the academic and research world.”

Despite being a consultant for not just for all ten UC campuses, but for most campuses in North America, Gilson is reluctant to call himself an expert. “I simply offer a new approach and viewpoint on how to manage processes and situations. I help to streamline and make them more cost-effective, incorporating safety into in-line operations management.”

Regarding his success, Gilson attributes it to being able to do what he loves.

Safety Engineering and Management

Awards for Systemwide LeadershipJim Gilson