St. John's University Challenge: Upgrade to St. Albert Hall Science Building for Sustainability and Occupational Safety and Health Administration Laboratory Standards
Robert Morris, Flow Safe Inc.
The death of University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) researcher Sheri Sangji and subsequent felony charges filed against UCLA and the primary investigator (PI) for failing to follow Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards has brought new challenges to chancellors of research universities, industrial hygienists, PIs, and laboratory design professionals. There is no "grandfather" allowance from OSHA's worker safety requirements. The challenge is even greater for older laboratories, such as the St. Albert Hall Science Building, circa 1957.
Fume hoods are the laboratory worker's primary personal protection equipment (PPE) from hazardous chemical vapor, splash, and explosion as defined by OSHA. The 1990 OSHA federal law mandated that all state OSHA programs adopt federal standards protecting laboratory workers. The federal OSHA standard created a paradigm shift in laboratory safety, but few employers, industrial hygienists, or laboratory design professionals have ever understood the impact of this law and its changes in worker safety and laboratory design professional responsibility.
The presentation will address the following items:
- The federal 1990 OSHA laboratory standard is not prescriptive, but a performance-based regulation, which is is a departure from previous OSHA regulation. Why the change? As the preamble of the regulation details, it was anecdotal safety myths that were the cause for laboratory worker's increased morbidity rates, including offspring deformities. The subtlety of these changes required clarification from the responsible individuals within OSHA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
- Recent case law decisions reinforce the employer and chemical health officer shoulder the major responsibility for laboratory worker safety. The laboratory design professional, with the responsibility to protect the public, has to supply a laboratory environment where a Chemical Safety Plan following OSHA requirements is possible.
- Can a laboratory design professional redirect their responsibility onto others? Who is responsible to follow OSHA laws, codes or American National Standards Institute standards? Can these responsibilities be passed on to a manufacturer? Case law on what is a performance versus design specification and determining the legal responsibility will be discussed.
- St. John's is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. St. Albert Hall Science building was one of four projects that were part of St. John's larger energy capital master plan that was awarded an ARRA matching fund grant. St. John's goal is to lower carbon emissions by 15,000 tons annually from base year 2007 inventory of 49,000 tons carbon dioxide. Faced with OSHA and energy issues at St. Albert Science Hall, St. John's University plan successfully balanced OSHA environmental health and safety with sustainability.
Robert Morris is president and CEO for Flow Safe Inc., located in Denville, New Jersey. Mr. Morris is an expert in both federal and state courts on HVAC design issues, as well as worker exposure in laboratories and clean rooms. Mr. Morris authored the National Energy Management Institute/Testing, Adjusting, Balancing Bureau (NEMI/TABB) study guide, which is used to test and certify their fume hood and laboratory testers. Mr. Morris has 39 patents on various technologies, from time in flight measurement to stable vortex fume hoods. His work in stable vortex fume hoods help form the bases of today's "low airflow, high-performance fume hoods". This work earned Mr. Morris the honor of being selected as New Jersey's Inventor of the Year in 2004.