David manages
the Engineering Safety Office, created last fall solely
for you and your safety. The new unit is part of the
Engineering Program Office and serves TEES and the
Dwight Look College of Engineering.
"Our mission
is to strive for a safe and healthful environment
for scholarship and research," says David, past director
of the OSHA Training Institute-Southwest Education
Center and past division head with the Texas Engineering
Extension Service.
The Engineering
Safety Office, which officially opened Oct. 1, was
created to help relieve the workload of environmental
health issues formerly assigned to the TEES Facilities
Office.
"There
is definitely a need for this office," David says.
"People were standing at the door to discuss safety
issues while we were still moving in furniture. It
may take longer to get settled, but unpacking files
will not take precedence over safety concerns."
David chairs
the Engineering Safety Committee and the TEES Safety
Council, and represents TEES on The Texas A&M
University System Risk Management & Safety Council.
He is a
faculty
member in the industrial hygiene and safety engineering
graduate program in the Department of Nuclear Engineering.
David has
been corporate manager of industrial hygiene with
a Fortune 500 company in Connecticut; director of
education, training and technical assistance with
OSHA in North Carolina; and assistant professor of
environmental health and safety at Walters State College
and at Western Carolina University.
One important
emphasis of the Safety Office is fire prevention.
David encourages all engineering faculty, staff and
student workers to attend annual fire extinguisher
training sessions. The first sessions were conducted
last October and the next are planned early in the
Fall 2000 semester. David warns that untrained people,
who have been known to extinguish everything but the
fire, should not discharge a fire extinguisher in
an emergency.
"The force
of the fire extinguisher’s pressure can surprise you,"
David says. "It takes practice."
Each engineering
building at Texas A&M has an emergency planning
committee, and David coordinates the one for the Wisenbaker
Engineering Research Center. Volunteer proctors from
each floor serve on the committee and assist in emergency
evacuations, fire drills and training. During an emergency
or drill, proctors are identified by yellow arm bands.
Engineering
education and research take place in more than 400
engineering labs on campus, making laboratory safety
another primary concern of the Engineering Safety
Office. Specifically, David will focus on issues influencing
chemical exposure and chemical spills.
"I want
to shift peoples’ awareness from reacting after-the-fact
to preventing before-the-fact," he says.
David currently
is compiling an inventory of TEES and Look College
laboratories and other potentially hazardous locations.
TEES Network and Support Services is helping him compile
the information into a relational database application,
which will be posted on the upcoming Engineering Safety
Office web page to better prepare faculty and students
in case of emergencies. The inventory includes building
name and room number, name and/or purpose of the lab,
date of last inspection and contact information for
the researcher-in-charge, departmental safety officer
and building proctor.
Proper
disposal of chemical waste is a serious issue, David
advises. When a faculty member or project investigator
has deemed that a material is no longer needed for
teaching or research, the material must be marked
with a "Hazardous Waste Disposal Tag" and placed in
the designated waste pick-up area in the building’s
chemical storage room. Material not tagged, and/or
placed on the floor or other nondesignated areas,
will not be picked up for disposal. The result can
be unsafe conditions.
As a strategic
visioner, an emerging position in high-tech companies,
David monitors and analyzes safety trends affecting
TEES and the Look College. His long-range plans for
the Engineering Safety Office are to increase the
role of the Engineering Safety Committee and the TEES
Safety Council in planning and managing safety in
engineering education and research.
"Safe practices
must be taught from the first undergraduate course
to the last Ph.D. course, and included in each sponsored
activity and project," David says. "Safety is simply
the most effective way to teach and learn."
Engineering
Safety Office
