Environmental Health and Safety activities, fall 2020

The pandemic has only served to ramp up the activities of the Environmental Health and Safety staff, who continued to be fully staffed and working in person on campus during the entire work-from-home period. Throughout this period, EHS staff have also continued with their regular job duties, conducting safety audits, hazardous waste pickups, responding to fire alarms and spills and more.

COVID-19-related activities have included:

• Ensuring the safety of teaching and research labs when they shut down in the spring through site visits to all labs looking for potential hazards (equipment left turned on, chemical storage issues, etc.).
• Delivering meals daily to all isolated/quarantined students (spring 2020).
• Developing PPE requirements for staff remaining on campus during spring semester, as well as those working at initial testing and surveillance testing sites.
• Cooperating with UHS Occupational Medicine to develop protocols for respiratory health exams for Physical Facilities staff who would need to access a symptomatic student’s room in an emergency.
• Participating in the Custodial and HVAC Work Groups.
• Fulfilling the Safety Officer role at the state testing site located in the Events Center parking lot (opening day until July 14), including developing PPE requirements for workers.
• Completing 200+ respiratory protection fit tests since July 1 that are necessary for staff required to use certain types of PPE at the initial testing site, surveillance testing site and Decker Student Health Services Center.
• Serving in various roles at the campus student testing site during Move-in Week.
• Assisting in various roles at surveillance testing site.
• Developing a streamlined process for internal review of Return to Research applications to ensure timely return to research activities.
• Continuing to review and approve Return to Research applications/modifications including verification of safety training completion for all involved, completion of chemical inventory and correction of any outstanding lab audit violations (~350 completed to date).
• Performing safety audits of all Binghamton University labs prior to researchers returning to work.
• Consulting on room arrangements for the fall semester to ensure COVID-19 compliance as well as compliance with NYS fire codes regarding furniture placement and exiting requirements.
• Completing initial move-in fire drills for residential buildings as required by the NYS Office of Fire Prevention and Control (OFPC). This included development of procedures to ensure COVID-19 compliance for participants upon exiting their building and while stated at their muster points.
• Conducting wastewater testing at 13 locations on campus each week since late August to help identify any potential COVID-19 hotspots as early as possible.

Additional activities not related to COVID-19 have included:

• Completing annual RA fire safety training completed via a Panopto recording.
• Completing a Science 2 Fire Safety Code Review (new construction).
• Completing annual sprinkler inspections of residential buildings.
• Completing the annual OFPC Fire Inspection for 2020.
• Working in conjunction with the Attorney General’s office on an upcoming trial related to a fire extinguisher.