Saturday, June 1, 2013
The Industrious Hygienist is celebrating National Safety Month!
Just a heads up that the Industrious Hygienist will be celebrating National Safety Month with other occupational safety and health professionals, including more frequent and more educational blog posts related to the National Safety Council focus areas.
This year's focus areas are:
Week 1: Preventing Slips, Trips, and Falls
Week 2: Employee Wellness
Week 3: Emergency Preparedness
Week 4: Ergonomics
There will be videos, posters/images, fact sheets, and how-to's. Stay posted and follow me if you want to learn more.
How to Use Stormwater in Green Infrastructure
This is a *late* shout-out to one of my alma maters, the University of Arizona (U of A) in Tucson.
Congratulations to Rayka Robrecht and Micaela Machado, both landscape architecture graduate students at U of A - they designed one of the winning stormwater harvesting systems in the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Campus RainWorks Challenge. They achieved second place for large institutions in the nationwide competition.
The system, shown in the image below, was designed to re-use stormwater, roof drain water from surrounding building roofs, and air-conditioning condensate water.
Stormwater collected in this green infrastructure design is collected in underground cisterns. The spiral shape is supposed to evoke an agave, petroglyphs, or the monsoon storm patterns in Tucson. The water is funneled to the center of the basin. The designers anticipate that the design, if implemented, could save U of A almost 2 millions gallons of water each year.
The spiffiest feature is at the center of the design - a view window that shows the collected water in the cisterns or chambers. If U of A really decides to modify the existing parking lot into green infrastructure like what was proposed by the designers in the Campus RainWorks Challenge, it would be a very pleasant place for students and faculty/staff to enjoy the tactile benefits of sustainability.
According to the USEPA Press Release:
"The University of Arizona team’s design plan centers on the redevelopment of a 70,000-square-foot parking lot located within a cluster of academic buildings. The design will replace the parking lot with a campus common area featuring two rings of retention basins to infiltrate stormwater runoff, five underground cisterns to harvest runoff and HVAC condensate from the adjacent buildings, and a translucent shade structure with an ephemeral water feature. Water collected in the underground cisterns is used to irrigate the landscape, reducing potable water use from 700,000 to 90,000 gallons/year."
More images of their project design posters:
The Industrious Hygienist is a HUGE fan of practical methods of implementing sustainability. Well done, Rayka, Micaela, and faculty advisor Ron Stoltz.
Congratulations to Rayka Robrecht and Micaela Machado, both landscape architecture graduate students at U of A - they designed one of the winning stormwater harvesting systems in the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Campus RainWorks Challenge. They achieved second place for large institutions in the nationwide competition.
The system, shown in the image below, was designed to re-use stormwater, roof drain water from surrounding building roofs, and air-conditioning condensate water.
 |
| The second-place-winning design from U of A for large institutions in the USEPA Campus RainWorks challenge. |
The spiffiest feature is at the center of the design - a view window that shows the collected water in the cisterns or chambers. If U of A really decides to modify the existing parking lot into green infrastructure like what was proposed by the designers in the Campus RainWorks Challenge, it would be a very pleasant place for students and faculty/staff to enjoy the tactile benefits of sustainability.
According to the USEPA Press Release:
"The University of Arizona team’s design plan centers on the redevelopment of a 70,000-square-foot parking lot located within a cluster of academic buildings. The design will replace the parking lot with a campus common area featuring two rings of retention basins to infiltrate stormwater runoff, five underground cisterns to harvest runoff and HVAC condensate from the adjacent buildings, and a translucent shade structure with an ephemeral water feature. Water collected in the underground cisterns is used to irrigate the landscape, reducing potable water use from 700,000 to 90,000 gallons/year."
More images of their project design posters:
The Industrious Hygienist is a HUGE fan of practical methods of implementing sustainability. Well done, Rayka, Micaela, and faculty advisor Ron Stoltz.
Friday, May 31, 2013
Safety Violations in Hospitality Industry - Hawaii's latest
Kauai Beach Resort faces $50K in fines for safety violations - Thegardenisland.com: Local
Courtesy of The Garden Island, a Kauai hotel (Kauai Beach Resort) received 14 safety and health violations from the OSHA Honolulu office. Several of the violations were classified as serious, involving storage/handling/labeling of propane tanks, electrical wiring, electrical work practices by untrained maintenance personnel, and training and use of personal respiratory and electrical personal protective equipment (PPE).
The hospitality industry is one of the local emphasis programs in place for the Hawaii OSHA office, and they like to focus on the "behind the scenes" areas of the hotels and resorts. This was a routine inspection, not based on any specific complaint.
In April, the OSHA Honolulu office cited the owner of a Waikiki hotel, giving Halekulani Corp. 17 safety violations, 14 of which were classified as serious. These serious violations involved PPE use and availability, fire extinguisher maintenance and inspection, and the providing protective equipment for electrical work. According to the announcement from OSHA, the hotel owners also "failed to provide training in hazardous waste operations and emergency response standards." There were also issues with labeling, access to electrical panels, and issues with labeling on gas tanks.
A common violation in the hospitality industry is the blood borne pathogens standard - laundry and housekeeping staff may have exposure to blood and other potentially infectious materials (OPIM), and per OSHA, "it is the employer's responsibility to determine which job classifications or specific tasks and procedures involve reasonably anticipated contact with blood or OPIM. "
Courtesy of Curtis Law Construction in Kauai, according to Hawaii OSHA representatives, the following are the top violations in Hawaii construction industry (paraphrased from webpage linked above):
Courtesy of The Garden Island, a Kauai hotel (Kauai Beach Resort) received 14 safety and health violations from the OSHA Honolulu office. Several of the violations were classified as serious, involving storage/handling/labeling of propane tanks, electrical wiring, electrical work practices by untrained maintenance personnel, and training and use of personal respiratory and electrical personal protective equipment (PPE).
The hospitality industry is one of the local emphasis programs in place for the Hawaii OSHA office, and they like to focus on the "behind the scenes" areas of the hotels and resorts. This was a routine inspection, not based on any specific complaint.
In April, the OSHA Honolulu office cited the owner of a Waikiki hotel, giving Halekulani Corp. 17 safety violations, 14 of which were classified as serious. These serious violations involved PPE use and availability, fire extinguisher maintenance and inspection, and the providing protective equipment for electrical work. According to the announcement from OSHA, the hotel owners also "failed to provide training in hazardous waste operations and emergency response standards." There were also issues with labeling, access to electrical panels, and issues with labeling on gas tanks.
A common violation in the hospitality industry is the blood borne pathogens standard - laundry and housekeeping staff may have exposure to blood and other potentially infectious materials (OPIM), and per OSHA, "it is the employer's responsibility to determine which job classifications or specific tasks and procedures involve reasonably anticipated contact with blood or OPIM. "
Courtesy of Curtis Law Construction in Kauai, according to Hawaii OSHA representatives, the following are the top violations in Hawaii construction industry (paraphrased from webpage linked above):
- Fall Protection (lanyards not attached, guardrails and toeboards not sufficient, ladders not secured)
- Trenching (sloping, shoring, and trench boxes not in compliance, no competent person inspections)
- Fork Lifts (no certificates of training, no seat belt or horn in use, load capacity not written on forklift)
- Heavy Equipment (operators not trained properly, no backup alarms, seat belts not being used, brakes not checked, no reflective vests)
- Cranes (operators not certified, no records or maintenance logs, no electrical safety training, rigging issues, swing radius not barricaded)
- Electrical Safety (no grounding pins, unlabeled circuit breakers, no front panel, no open space in front of breaker/area in front of panel blocked, lack of outer insulation)
- General (machine guarding issues, no hazard communication program, insufficient training, PPE not worn or not sufficient)
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