Safe habits

Enterprise should strengthen safety check, correct employees unsafe behaviors promptly. Every employee performs his own functions and regards safety as his own problem, implements the measures and requirements consciously, solves problems existing in work initiatively, form safe habits through preventive management. 

Avoidance of "routine" exposure Develop and encourage safe habits (23) avoid unnecessary exposure to chemicals by any route (23). Do not smeU or taste chemicals (32). Vent apparatus which may discharge toxic chemicals (vacuum pumps, distillation columns, etc.) into local exhaust devices (199). Inspect gloves (157) and test glove boxes (208) before use. Do not allow release of toxic substances in cold rooms and warm rooms, since these have contained recirculated atmospheres (209). 

Generic Safety Issue (GSI) B-66 in NUREG-0933 (Reference 1) addresses maintenance of the control room in a safe habitable condition under accident conditions by providing adequate protection for the plant operators against airborne radiation and toxic gases. 

Tendency towards safe habits Continued unsafe behavior Unsafe habit... 

The control room or the supplementary control points, including all equipment necessary to maintain the control room or supplementary control points within safe habitability limits for personnel and safe environmental limits for equipment protected against DBEEs ... 

Develop and encourage safe habits and avoid unnecessary exposure to chemicals. Do not smell or taste chemicals. Vent any apparatus that may discharge particularly hazardous chemicals into local exhaust devices. Chemicals shall be properly stored and used to prevent exposure. Appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) shall be provided to employees working in areas where hazardous substances are in use. Employees shall be trained in the safe use and maintenance of PPE provided in the laboratory. Test positive pressure glove boxes for leaks before use. Do not allow release of toxic substances into any building area, only into an appropriate local exhaust device ducted to the outdoors. 

Turning safe self-directed behavior (when the person is consciously competent) into a safe habit (unconscious competence). 

I view this text as a guide and reference, a sort of road map to biomedical safety. Learning proper safety principles and techniques at the onset of laboratory work is a great advantage to students just embarking on research careers, as it will lead to the development of safe habits in research work. Safety education is also essential for the research technician starting to work at an industrial biomedical laboratory. Finally, even experienced workers will find this book useful, as it serves as a reminder of unsafe practices. I sincerely hope that this text will help you to learn more about laboratory safety and to make your lab a safer place to work. 

At what stage of habit formation are you when you get in the back seat of someone else s vehicle, like a taxi cab It is possible to be "unconsciously competent" in some situations but be "consciously competent" or "consciously incompetent" in another situation for the same behavior. For example, wearing safety glasses, ear plugs, and steel-toed shoes might be a safe habit on the job, but which of these safe behaviors are followed when mowing the lawn in your backyard ... 

Injection—The injection of hazardous materials into the body sounds, at first, like a bad joke. Who in his right mind would inject themselves—exp>ecially when it is not required by a doctor However, it can occur by stepping on or bumping against a sheup object while working at an incident site. It will happen before you even realize it has occurred and the reality of possible being internally contaminated sinks in. The best precaution for this eventuality is to have on protective clothing and observe safe work habits. 

Instructors who have used this new technology report that trainees develop skills more quickly than with traditional training methods. In refresher training, this new system reinforces defensive driving skills and safe driving habits. Drivers can also check their reaction times and hand-eye coordination. 

Protection requires a combination of approaches. There are a number of factors that are intrinsic to the physiological and psychological makeup of the worker. Individual susceptibility and interaction with other biological stresses will vary from individual to individual. Personal hygiene and work habits also vary. It is important that the worker fully comprehends the nature of the hazards and the consequences of careless actions or failure to follow prescribed safe procedures. The attitudes of workers and managers are important in implementing working practices that will minimize risks. 

The use of protective clothing, the observation of operational and regulatory guidelines and the observation of good work habits contribute to safe pesticide application. Access to regular trained medical advice and examination is also important. 

A tribunal in Nova Scotia has recently held otherwise. In Michelin v Nova Scotia (Workers Compensation Board), a worker who was in perfect health and had no outside habits that would adversely affect his sleep complained that working variable shifts adversely affected his work and private life (54). The workers compensation tribunal found that shift-work-maladaption syndrome is a compensable injury under the workers compensation scheme. The board found the condition disabling because the worker was too tired to work safely, and his inability to adapt to the alternating shifts was the cause of the injury. The board also found persuasive the worker s clean and healthy lifestyle that did not otherwise affect his sleep. 

Of course,-volatile substances that might be toxic should always be used in the hood, and students should be urged to make it a habit to wash their hands before leaving the chemistry laboratory. Safe practice in the undergraduate laboratory should always be one of the prime concerns of any chemistry faculty. 

Normally, sufficient data will be available for point 1, but generally will not be of much value for the safety assessment, particularly since data from point 2 are rarely available. However, since the skin irritating effects of a formulation are a complex function of the ingredients,32 the most valuable information is derived from the other five points. Of most note are data from point 5, particularly exaggerated exposure studies where a test product is applied to a defined skin site many times a day and is compared to a marketed product known to have an extensive history of safe use. Valuable information often comes also from more extended consumer use tests, perhaps undertaken in a number of locations to allow for differences in use habits. Ultimately it is not possible to do predictive studies (clinical or in vitro) which will predict the market place perfectly, particularly low level complaint rates — which means that point 7, monitoring feedback from the market, is always of importance. 

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