In discussions with laboratory safety professionals across the country this year, some of the same safety issues seemed to crop up over and over. Lab staff are tired, they’re fatigued about dealing with COVID-19, and [...]
The majority of laboratory injuries and exposures are preventable, and most of them occur because people are not paying close attention to the situation. They lose their situational awareness or were never paying attention to [...]
As we prepare to say good-bye and good riddance to the year 2020, we hesitatingly welcome 2021. What will the new year bring? Can it be worse than last year? Are we prepared to deal [...]
The year 2020 is roaring quickly to a close, and COVID-19 is (unfortunately) still around. We have made changes to our lives at home, in public, and at work. Healthcare workers, in particular, made several [...]
In Isaac Asimov’s writings about science, he created “the three laws,” a set of rules designed by humans that robots must follow in that fictional society. Robots cannot harm human beings, they must obey humans [...]
As a safety professional, we know performing risk assessments is worth it- it is an integral piece of managing a safety program. Assessing risks and identifying hazards are considered the beginning steps that must be [...]
OSHA has once again published its list of its most-cited standards. This time, they discuss the 2019 heavy-hitters, and once again, chemical management issues top the list. Year after year organizations are fined for incomplete [...]
Things have changed drastically over the past several months as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. Many adjustments to how we work and live have been made and it has become difficult to separate fact from fiction. [...]
The safety officer walked into the satellite laboratory and saw an employee scrolling through social media on her cell phone. Another employee was wearing mesh sneakers and chewing gum in the department. In the storeroom [...]
The evolving COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world - the way we educate, the way we conduct business, and the way we socialize (or don’t). In the lab and clinic settings, there are many practices [...]