B. Institutional or Corporate Emergency Committee

Figure 2.1 A sign such as this placed at each telephone is an

effective way to inform people how to notify authorities.



Plans should be developed which would be operative at differing levels. A basic plan should

be short and easy to understand and to implement. The simple sign in Figure 2.1 above is effective for most emergencies. The caller is expected to be guided by the person (usually a

dispatcher) at the other end of the line for specific guidance for the appropriate response to the

immediate problem. The major caveat is that the time to make such a call may not be available prior

to evacuation for emergencies representing immediate and worsening emergency situations.

Occupants of a facility should be trained to recognize when this condition exists and know how

to initiate an evacuation of as large an area as necessary.

1. Laboratory Emergency Plan

Workers in most laboratories normally are intelligent, knowledgeable individuals and can

cope with many small emergencies such as a spill of a liter of sulfuric acid or a small fire if they

have received appropriate emergency training. Such training is mandatory under the OSHA

laboratory standard. A comprehensive laboratory emergency response plan is required under

current standards for the risks associated with operations within the facility. The plan needs to

include basic information such as risk recognition appropriate to the operations of the facility,

means of internal responses to small to moderate emergencies, and evacuation training. All

employees in the laboratory must receive instruction on these points at the time of beginning

work in the facility, or when any new procedure or operation is introduced posing different risks.

In order to identify potential risks, a detailed, thorough hazard analysis needs to have been done,

based on the things that could go wrong, not just the risks associated with normal operations.

Among information which must be included in the plan is where an employee can get not only

the laboratory specific plan, but also the organization’s overall plan. Another key ingredient of

the plan is where safety and health information for the chemicals used in the laboratory, as

represented by Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs), can be readily provided.

A written emergency plan for an individual laboratory might, in outline, resemble the

following:

I.



In bold letters, the basic number to call in the event of an emergency, perhaps 911or



©2000 CRC Press LLC



II.



III.



possibly an internal number.

A defined line of authority. This should provide the names and home and work

telephone numbers of several individuals authorized to make decisions for the facility.

They should be persons with direct knowledge of laboratory operations and, at least

at the top of the list, persons who can make financial commitments.

A list of external persons/groups, with telephone numbers, who can provide emergency assistance relevant to the risks associated with operations. Such a list should

include at least the following:

Emergency telephone number- 911, if available in the area

University police or corporate security, if not available through the 911 number

Local government police, if not available through 911 number

Fire department number, if not available through 911 number

Emergency medical care (rescue squad), if not available through 911 number

Nearest Poison Control Center

Nearest hospital

Safety department

Spill control group, if not available through 911 dispatcher or Safety Department

Maintenance department number(s)

Laboratory supervisor business and home telephone number

Secondary laboratory authorities business and home telephone numbers

Departmental or building authority number



IV.

V.

VI.



VII.

VIII.

IX.



A list of normally required safety procedures appropriate to laboratory operations.

A simplified list of emergency actions to take for most likely emergencies.

Evacuation instructions, including a map of at least two alternative evacuation routes.

The primary route should be identified and normally should be the shortest, most direct

means of egress from the facility. A gathering area should be identified to which

evacuees would normally go. This is important to allow a “head count” to ensure that

everyone did successfully evacuate, and to provide a location where external agencies

could come in order to receive information concerning the emergency.

Location of Material Safety Data Sheets and other safety and health reference

materials.

Location of the organization’s emergency plan.

Procedures for expanding the emergency response to additional areas of the building

and organization when the emergency is a “large” one extending beyond the

immediate area. The location of one or more telephones outside of the affected

facility but readily accessible should be clearly identified.



Two items need to be placed on or adjacent to the laboratory door to assist emergency

responders when lab personnel are not immediately available during an incident: the line of

authority, listed in Item II above, and indications of the types of hazards to be found within the

laboratory. Some areas have ordinances requiring the use of the National Fire Prevention

Association (NFPA) Diamond for the latter purpose, but unfortunately, most laboratories would

have at least some material with high-risk ratings in all categories. Pictographic labels identifying

classes of hazards within a facility are also used. The best way to alert firefighters would be to

have laboratory inventories on a computer database and provision made for emergency response

groups to have electronic access to this information. Software is available, although not yet in

wide use, which does this.

This plan incorporates some aspects of the Laboratory Industrial Hygiene Plan as required

under OSHA, which could be deleted, since the written industrial hygiene plan must be

maintained. However, items I, II, III, V, VI, and VII are essential.

The plan just described should be reviewed with each new employee and at least annually

for all occupants of a laboratory. An annual practice drill is strongly recommended.



©2000 CRC Press LLC



2.



Organizational Emergency Plan

There is some overlap between planning for responses to local emergencies in individual

laboratories and the response to large-scale emergencies. A t the extremes, the distinction is clear.

A minor spill or a trash can fire obviously is a minor emergency while a fire that involves an entire

building or a major spill where hazardous materials are released into the environment clearly is

beyond the capacity of laboratory personnel. Planning needs to provide guidelines to cover the

transition between the two levels to ensure that an appropriate response does occur. A

comprehensive plan is intended to provide a general infrastructure for al l c l a s s e s o f

emergencies. Detailed plans are essential for organized emergency groups, but for the u s e of

the general public a basic emergency plan is to evacuate the area or building, and call for

emergency help. Often, evacuation will be more than is actually needed, but it is usually a

conservative and safe approach. The essential information to enable this can be placed on a

single page for a facility. Normally, planning for large-scale emergencies will be the

responsibility of the corporate or institutional Emergency Committee, working with internal

groups and the Local Emergency Planning Committee (required under SARA Title III) and

nearby support agencies.

A basic means of reacting to virtually any emergency for untrained persons would be to

place a sign, such as is shown in Figure 2.1, on or near every telephone. In this case, it is up

to the individual at the other end of the telephone line, normally a dispatcher, to give verbal

directions for subsequent actions. The dispatcher needs to be well trained and provided with

a list of individuals and groups whom they would notify of the incident, in an appropriate

priority. These individuals, groups, and priorities are defined in the master emergency plan for

the organization.

Following is a simplified table of contents for an emergency plan established for an area

containing a university, major commercial activities including chemically related industries,

transportation sources (highway, rail, and air), and the usual variety of emergency support

groups.

1.0

1.1



1.2

1.3

1.4



1.5



Charge

Assignment of legal authority and responsibilities

Charge

Members of governing body

Purpose of plan, functional description

Instruction on how to use the plan

Initial conditions

Demographics

Geographic description

Natural risks

Climate

Time factors

Local hazard sources

Utilities

Local administrative units

Local emergency units

Local resources

Communications

Notification procedures

List of agencies/personnel requiring notification

Telephone lists

Key personnel and alternates

Telephone tree

Emergency assistance numbers

Local

Regional

State



©2000 CRC Press LLC



1.6



1.7



1.8



1.9



2.0



National

Commercial

Regulatory agencies

Alternative communication options

Authorized radio coordination procedure

Incident recognition/response

Identification of incident

Response protocol

Emergency command structure (see Figure 2.2)

Command center, normal

At-scene control center

Emergency coordinator

On-scene commanders

Responsibilities of emergency support groups (initial response)

Fire/rescue/haz-mat teams

Law enforcement

Medical

Communications (public notification/media relations)

Logistics support

Transportation

Public works

Emergency housing/refuge centers

Administrators (government/corporate/institutional)

Agencies (regional/national/regulatory)

Emergency committee

Ongoing and completion

Assessment of conditions

Containment

Termination

Recovery

Critique

Continuing processes

Training

Practice drills

Resource development

Plan review

Appendices

Incident forms

Mutual aid agreements

Current emergency rosters

Evacuation centers

Hospitals/medical assistance

Social agencies

Emergency equipment lists

Likely incident locations

Cleanup contractors

Experts

Testing laboratories

Maps/overlays

Radio/TV/newspaper contacts

Copies of regulations



All of the groups likely to be involved in the emergency response should possess a copy

and be familiar with the organization’s emergency response manual. The manual should spell

out in detail, but still as simply and as flexibly as possible, the correct response to the classes



©2000 CRC Press LLC



of emergencies incorporated in the ERR.

It is always the intent of every organization that no emergency will ever occur and for the

more unusual situations considered in the ERR, long intervals may pass between incidents.

However, it is essential to include provision for periodic review and practice drills in every

emergency plan.



Figure 2.2 A typical military-type command structure for responding to a substantial emergency.



a. Emergency Plan Components

A partial list of some of the more common laboratory-related emergency situations was

given in Section 2.1. A written response plan should be provided for each of these situations,

identifying the likely locations where these classes of problems would be apt to occur, the

characteristics of the locations, accessibility, probable means of response, local resources

available, contact persons, outside agencies that would need to be notified, and possible

refuge areas to which the occupants would evacuate. Important characteristics or questions

which need to be addressed would include: is it a multiple story building, what type of

construction (combustible or fire resistant), does an alarm and/or sprinkler system exist, are

there standpipe connections or hydrants nearby, what is the typical occupancy level at

various times of day, are there disabled persons in the building requiring special assistance,

are there hazardous materials in the facility, the kinds and quantities of these materials and what is the

potential impact on adjacent structures or areas should hazardous materials be released for

various environmental conditions, among other factors. This type of information requires a

great deal of time to compile. The compiled information should be placed in a well-organized

appendix to the main body of the plan, so that it would not be necessary to wade through

what would necessarily be a massive amount of data for larger organizations.

The management structure is critical to controlling emergencies. This needs to be defined

in advance. If the organization is sufficiently large, the plan may include managing virtually

every aspect internally without utilizing external agencies, unless the scope of the emergency

extends beyond the area of the organization’s control. In such cases, outside agencies must



©2000 CRC Press LLC



be notified, and they may assume partia l responsibility for management of the emergency

response, but an emergency extending beyond the controlled boundaries will definitely

mandate notification of outside agencies. A large organization may have its own fire brigade,

police force, safety department, hazardous material response team, rescue squad, and access

to experts internally. Most larger corporations and universities have some of these, but

typically not all. Smaller firms and colleges might have only a combined security force and a

small safety department.

M o s t emergency plans employ a pseudo-military organization, at least for coordinating

the initial response. An individual, with alternates, is identified as the emergency coordinator.

If the organization is highly structured, a command center, again with alternates, is identified

to which the emergency coordinator and other key individuals will go when an emergency of

sufficient scope occurs. This command center should have radio and telephone communication capability, which would be less vulnerable to loss of power and normal communication

channels. Radio contact on emergency frequencies should be available to fire and rescue

units, nearby hospitals, local and state police, and state emergency response agencies. In

large-scale emergencies, even these channels can become overloaded, as will normal

telephone lines. Cellular telephone service is an alternative which has become widely

available that does not depend upon hard-wired telephone communications. Other

advantages of using cellular telephones are that they do not use what may be limited radio

channels and are less likely to be overheard by the general public. A chart is shown in Figure

2.2 which reflects this typical command center operation.

The emergency coordinator is a key individual and must be someone who will be accepted

as a command figure. The individual ideally should be one to grasp information quickly, be

able to integrate it, and come up with appropriate responses. It is critical too that this person

be sufficiently flexible mentally that proffered advice is not disregarded out of hand. Since the

most often employed emergency response structure is semi-military in nature, a person often

designated as the emergency coordinator will be the public safety director. In the context of

laboratory emergencies, most public safety managers are likely to have had police training,

not scientific training, so having knowledgeable persons present to make technically correct

recommendations is very important. These may be from the safety department and/or

individuals from the scene of the incident. In addition to the structured internal departments,

major resources available at any research-oriented institution are the scientists and

technicians who work there. The ones most likely to be helpful for the types of emergencies

anticipated in developing the emergency plan should be identified and a master list of their

office and home telephone numbers maintained. A copy of the current list should be

maintained by the key internal organizations involved in the emergency response plan. A

copy of the list should also be personally maintained by the key individuals in these latter

organizations, both in their offices and at home. Alternates should always be designated for

these key persons, so that backups are available at all times. Radios, cellular telephones, or

beeper systems to allow these key persons to be reached when not at their usual locations

would be highly desirable.

Organizations having the capability for a response at this level will have some type of

security or police force. These individuals are very likely to be the very first “outsiders”

arriving on the scene of an emergency and, as such, initiating a first response. Clearly, they

need to receive sufficient training to permit them to make an appropriate “first response”

evaluation of the incident and set the containment and response mechanisms in process. It is

relatively rare, though, that they will have sufficient training to manage the response to

technically involved emergencies. Some key personnel among the security or police groups

will ideally have been given special “hazardous-materials-incident” training to allow them to

initiate or effect an evacuation of affected personnel and provide s afety for themselves and

for the evacuees, pending further response actions.

In many jurisdictions, the legal responsibility for management of incidents involving

hazardous materials has been delegated to the fire department or to specialized hazardous

material response teams. When these arrive on the scene, the management responsibility for

an incident may shift so that the emergency coordinator, having the ultimate authority, will no

©2000 CRC Press LLC



longer be a representative of the organization or institution. In such a case, the internal side

of the picture would shift to a supportive and/or advisory role. However, in many instances,

the fire department, if that is the responsible agency to which authority is delegated, may

choose to take substantial advice and guidance from the organization’s team or even ask

them to continue de facto management of the response to the incident. Depending upon the

nature of the incident, one or more regulatory agencies may need to be notified promptly. If a

significant chemical release is involved which becomes airborne or involves a liquid spill such

that hazardous materials escape from the controlled boundaries of a facility, the National

Response Center must be notified as well as the local emergency response coordinator (often

the sheriff, police chief, or civil disaster coordinator) and state agencies. Other agencies

would also be called, as their areas of regulatory concern would become involved. Although

these outside regulatory agencies (note the distinction here between regulatory agencies and

emergency response agencies) will arrive on the scene, the responsibility for the incident

normally remains a local responsibility, unless it truly becomes a massive problem. Written aid

agreements need to have been worked out in detail between corporations a n d i n s t i t u t i o n s

with local emergency response organizations.

There are three groups identified in Figure 2.2 that have not been touched upon as yet.

No major incident occurs without news media quickly arriving at the scene. Emergency

response personnel must not be distracted by these persons, so media contact persons or

groups should be established with whom the news representatives may interact. The security

or police may need to act to ensure that not only news media but other nonessential persons

do not enter the area. In a mature response stage of an emergency, the role of the police will

almost certainly have devolved from active management to control of the boundaries of the

affected area. The emergency coordinator has to have some resources immediately at his

disposal but is unlikely to have access to larger amounts. Typically, when or if these are

needed, authorization will have to come from senior admin istrators with authority to make

substantial financial commitments. Finally, communications has been touched upon in terms

of contacting agencie s, support groups, and the media. The communications team is also

responsible to see that all occupants of an area affected by, for example, an airborne plume of

a toxic gas, are notified. Time may be critical, so the communications group must have

procedures in place to communicate by all reasonable means using radio, TV, roving vehicles

equipped with public address systems, and (if time and conditions permit) door to door

searches.

A library of reference materials should be maintain ed for the use of the emergency responders. Following is a short summary of some of the more useful references, many of which

are revised frequently . Although these are primarily printed books, today a number of other

types of data information sources are becoming widely available for chemical pr o d u c t s ,

primarily as a result of information needs evoked by the OSHA Hazard Communication

Standard. An example of these, included in the list, are Material Safety Data Sheets, available

directly from the chemical product manufacturer and on the Internet. These are provided when

the chemical is first purchased and when significant new information becomes available.

Compilations of these are sold as hard bound or looseleaf volu mes, on microfiche, or on

computer CD-rom disks. The latter contain vast volumes of information on a 4.75 inch plastic

disk. Many of these provide quarterly upgrades at reasonable costs. Most government

regulatory standards and guides are now directly available on the Internet. There is little

reason not to be adequately informed with all of these resources readily available. Many of

the information sources listed below are available either directly on the Internet or available

through Internet orders. In addition, many of the Internet sites include links to other sites,

other than those given below, which provide additional information.



! ACGIH, American Conference of Industrial Hygienists—Threshold Limit Values

(TLV) for Chemical and Physical Substances

1330 Kemper Meadow Drive, Ste. 1600

Cincinnati, OH 45240

http://www.acgih.org/

! Chemical Hazards Response Information condensed Guide(CHRIS)

©2000 CRC Press LLC



Available through Federal General Services Administration. See

http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-s/g-si/g-sii/

! Department of Transportation Emergency Response Guidebook, DOT Publication

NAERG9G (or later version, revised every 3 years)

http://hazmat.dot.gov/gydebook.htm

also check

http://hazmat.dot.gov/ohmforms.htm

! Safe Handling of Compressed Gases in the Laboratory and Plant

Matheson Gas Products

PO. Box 85

East Rutherford, NJ 07073

http://www.mathesongas.com/catalog1.htm

also,

http://www.mathesongas/acorepro.htm

The company also provides MSDS for all their products via the Internet

! List of Certified Poison Control Centers/by state-region

http://www.medicinenet.com/Art.asp?li=MNI&ag=Y&ArticleKey=869

! Farm Chemicals Handbook

Meister Publishing Co.

37733 Euclid Avenue

Willoughby, OH 44094-5992

http://www.meisterpro.cm/

! Fire Prevention Guide on Hazardous Materials

National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)

1-Batterymarch Park

P.O. Box 9101

Quincy, MA 02269-9101

http://www.nfpa.org/

! First Aid Manual for Chemical Accidents, 2 nd Edition

Lefevre, Marc J.(Editor), Conibear, Shirley (Contributor)

John Wiley & Sons

605 Third Avenue

New York, NY 10158-0012

! Hazardous Materials

Department of Transportation

Office of Secretary Transportation

Washington, DC 20590

http://hazmat.dot.gov/toc.htm

! Material Safety Data Sheets Master File for Chemicals in Use at the Institution.

(Available from chemical manufacturer or generic database, often directly on the

Internet from the manufacturer. Note that there are now a number of commercial

providers of generic databases, either in hard copy form or in various computer

formats.) For a free MSDS data base via the Internet, see the following, available from

Paul Restivo of the University of Kentucky.

! MSDS Data base available from http://www.ilpi.com/msds/index.chtml

! Merck Index

Merck & Co. Inc.

Rahway, NJ 07065

! NIOSH/OSHA Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards, DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 782 10

U.S. Government Printing Office

Washington, DC 20402

! Physicians’ Desk Reference

Medical Economics Company

Oradell, NJ 07649

! Prudent Practices for Handling Hazardous Chemicals in Laboratories

©2000 CRC Press LLC



National Academy Press

2101 Constitution Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20418

! Handbook of Chemistry and Physics

CRC Press, LLC

2000 Corporate Blvd., NW

Boca Raton, FL 33431

! Laboratory Safety Principles and Practice

American Society for Microbiology

1913 I St., N.W

Washington, DC 20006

! National Health Council,

1730 M Street, NW, Suite 500

Washington, DC 20036-4505

202-785-3910

Internal resources will not always be sufficient to handle an emergency. Therefore, a list

of external emergency organizations should be maintained by the organizational emergency

groups as well. The following are among those likely to be useful and readily available. Any

others that might be useful to you and are available should be identified and added to the

list. Currently available telephone numbers are given in some cases. These are subject to

change and should be verified before incorporating them in a plan.



!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!



Regional emergency group/coordinator

Arson and/or bomb squad, if not otherwise identified

Civil Defense coordinator, if not otherwise identified

Commercial analytical laboratories

Commercial environmental emergency response firms

Law enforcement organizations, e.g., city or county Police Chief or Sheriff, state

police, F.B.I.

Centers for Disease Control, phone no. 404-639-1024 or http://www.cdc.gov/

CHEMTREC (for chemical and pesticide spills), phone no. 800-424-9300 or

http://www.cma.com/

Compressed Gas Association, phone no. 212-412-9000 or

http://www.naturalgas.org/CGA/index.htm

National Fire Prevention Association, phone no. 617-770-3000 or

http://www.nfpa.org/home.html

National Response Center (USCG and EPA), phone no. 800-424-8802, or

http://www.epa.gov:12001/s97is.vts

Nuclear Regulatory Commission, phone no. 301-492-7000 (also state or regional

federal office) or http://nrc.gov/

Occupational Safety and Health Administration, phone no. 202-245-3045 (also state or

regional federal office) also see http://www.osha.gov

Poison Control Center, phone no. 502-362-2327 also see list of certified poison control

centers listed above.



Many of these are sources of information only, and normally do not provide actual assistance for the emergency response. The ones likely to have the capability to do so are the first

six. However, the commercial groups listed represent profit-making organizations and the

institution or corporation must be willing to pay for their services. Since ultimately the

organization (or their insurers) will bear the bulk of the costs for the emergency response,

authority must be provided to pay for these services.

b. Emergency Equipment

Another important step in preparing for an emergency is acquiring appropriate equipment,

which is kept readily available for use. Some of this should be located in the laboratory area

and every laboratory should be furnished with it. Other equipment, because of the cost and



©2000 CRC Press LLC



relatively rare occasions when it is likely to be needed, should be maintained at a central

location. Even the equipment kept centrally needs to be realistically selected. For example, it is

neither necessary nor desirable for every organization to maintain an expensive, fully equipped

hazardous material emergency response team. Some very large organizations may find them

essential but most institutions will not be able to justify the cost.

Some of the emergency equipment needs to be built in, as part of the fixed equipment in the

laboratory. Included in this group are the following items:

Eyewash stations—At least one of these, meeting ANSI standard Z358.1-1990, (or

preferably the new version- Z358.1-1998) must be placed in an easily accessible location. The

travel distance to a unit should be no more than 100 feet according to the standard and travel

time should not exceed 10 seconds. According to Andrew Munster, M.D., Secretary of the

American Burn Association, “time is critical” and Russell Kilmer of the Polymer Products

Division Of the E.I. DuPont Experiment Station in Wilmington, DE, is quoted as saying “Every

laboratory in their facility is equipped with an emergency shower or eyewash station to meet

their safety requirements....” It is very undesirable for an injured person, possibly blinded by a

chemical, to have to find a way to units outside the immediate room, perhaps through a closed

door. Proposed standards for disabled individuals have been proposed as ANSI standard

117.1-1992, establishing access clearances and other physical limits. Eyewash stations should

be mounted on a plumbed water line, rather than the small squeeze bottles that are sometimes

used for the purpose. The squeeze bottles do not contain enough water to be effective. OSHA

inspectors are likely to cite a facility in which the bottles represent the only source of water for

flushing contaminants from a person’s eyes. Where plumbed water lines do not exist, such as

in the field, larger self-contained units are available which do provide sufficient water flow for

an extended period. Cold water itself can be uncomfortable to the eye, so if possible the

eyewash water supply should have a holding tank to ensure that the water is at least near room

temperature. In many of the colder areas of the country, tap water may be well below room

temperature for several months of the year.

Deluge shower — Eyewash stations and deluge showers ideally should be installed as a

unit. The standards cited in the preceding paragraph apply to emergency showers as well.

Although the eyes are probably the most critical exposed organs susceptible to damage,

chemicals spla shed on the face may also splash on the body. A deluge shower should be

capable of delivering about a gallon per second with a water pressure of 20 to 50 psi. A

common error is to plumb the unit into too small a line incapable of delivering an adequate

flow. The water supply should be at least a 1-inch line. Although a floor drain is desirable, it is

not essential. One can always mop up afterward. There should be a timed cutoff, however, at

about 15 to 20 minutes, after which the unit would need to be reactivated. Cases have occurred

where, as an act of vandalism, a deluge shower was activated and rigged so that it would

continue to run. In one case, before the problem was discovered, over 30,000 gallons of water

flooded the facility. The unit was in the hall outside the laboratory; another argument for

placing the units within a lockable room. Care must be taken to ensure that the water from the

shower cannot come into contact with electrical wiring, either directly from the shower or by

coming into contact with extension cords improperly running across the floor. Again, the

units should always be placed in an easily accessible location. Care is essential to maintain

clear accessibility. In laboratories, many instances have been noted where limited floor space

has resulted in equipment being placed immediately under the showers. The ANSI standards

meeting ADA requirements for the disabled cited in the previous section must be maintained.

Fire extinguishers — OSHA requires that every flammable material storage area be

equipped with a portable class B fire extinguisher. The standard does not specify the amount

of a flammable material which makes a room a storage facility so in effect most laboratories

face the need to comply with the standard. The unit should be at least a 12-lb unit and it

should not be necessary to travel more than 25 feet to reach it from any point in the laboratory. This specific requirement in the General Industry Standard may be preempted by the

OSHA Laboratory Standard, but requirements of that standard provide for emergency

response training, which is construed to include training in how to use portable fire

extinguishers. If it is intended that employees may attempt to put out small fires a n d n o t

©2000 CRC Press LLC



simply evacuate immediately, then the employees should be trained in the proper use of an

extinguisher at the time of employment and receive refresher training annually. Class B

extinguishers are, of course, intended for flammable solvents. Other classes of fire extinguishers are class A, intended for combustible solid materials, such as paper or wood, class C,

where electrically live equipment is involved, and class D, where reactive metals, such as

sodium, are used. Combination units such as AB or ABC are available, which, although not

equally effective for all types of fires, can be used where mixed fuels are involved. More

information on fire extinguishers will be found in a later section.

Fire blanket — A fire blanket is a desirable unit to have permanently mounted in a laboratory. The blankets are usually installed in a vertical orientation so that a user need only

grasp the handle and roll themselves up in it in order to smother the fire. Some blan k e t s

include asbestos in their manufacture; these should not be installed, and existing units

should be replaced. The concern is that they could become a source of airborne asbestos

fibers, which have known carcinogenic properties. Unfortunately the heavy woolen blankets

most often used as alternatives are likely to be stolen. There are fire blankets using fiberglass

or special fire-resistant synthetics instead of asbestos or wool available. If a fire situation is a

distinct possibility, consideration should be given to providing a woolen blanke t saturated

with a water-soluble, oil-based gel. This not only protects against fires and aids in escape

through an active fire, but can be useful in the emergency treatment of burn victims. These

gel blankets have a limited shelf life, are expensive, and are infrequently found in a facility.

Emergency lights — Emergency lighting to enable safe evacuation must be provided by

some mechanism. One alternative is to have two sources of commercial power to the lighting

circuits in a building. This can be achieved by having a second source external to the building

or secondary power sources within the building, but this alternative is defeated in power

outages covering a wide area. There are several alternative types of internal power sources

including emergency generators; large, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) to provide

power for lights for a substantial area which depends on batteries to provide power for a fairly

limited interval; and individual trickle-charged battery -powered lights in individual laboratories. Generator units require frequent testing under load and thus are a maintenance

problem. Uninterruptible power supplies are best suited for maintenance of power to

equipment such as computers, where a controlled shutdown is almost essential. The most

economical alternative especially in retrofitting an older facility is the individual tricklecharged battery-powered units that come on when the power fails.

First aid kit — One of these needs to be in every laboratory and should be kept in a predetermined fixed location. They are intended to be used for minor injuries or basic treatment

while awaiting more advanced care for major injuries. Access to appropriate emergency

medical care is required under OSHA standard 1910.151. Kits should be relatively small units.

Packaged units are sold that are adequate for five or six persons. There is little value in having

larger units, since in the event of an emergency involving more persons, help definitely will be

needed from trained emergency care provider units, including rescue squads and physicians.

Present in the kits should be a variety of bandages, adhesive tapes, alcohol swabs, gauze,

perhaps some protective creams, and a few cold packs. Spe cial situations could require

special items to be available to provide treatment. Items such as iodine, methiolate, and

tourniquets are no longer recommended for inclusion in most cases. It is essential that a

maintenance program be established to ensure that the kit is always adequately supplied. It is

all too easy to use up the supplies without replenishing them.

Fire alarm pull station —The location of the nearest pull station should be familiar to

everyone in the laboratory

Special safety equipment —There are many specialized research areas which require

special safety items such as explosion-proof wiring, combustible gas monitors, and explosion

venting for laboratories working with highly explosive gases. The possibilities are too many

to dwell on at this point.

Some emergency equipment need not be built in but should be available. Among these

items are the following:

Absorptive material — Probably the most common laboratory accident is a spill from a

beaker or a chemical container. The volume is typically fairly small, rarely exceeding more than

4 or 5 liters and usually much less. Of course, there are spills which would require immediate



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