Directorate Safety Forums
Directorate Zero Accident Councils (DZACs) have been developed lab-wide to provide a forum for staff and management to identify and correct safety issues of interest to the organizations (both Support and Research). Management commitment to continuous and sustainable improvements in workers’ safety and health is further demonstrated by the allocation of necessary resources to assure the success of the safety forums.
Each DZAC is designed to meet the specific requirements of the organizations. Staff representatives have been identified based on unique directorate structures (e.g. from geographical or project groups, or hazard families, etc.). The representatives are tasked with bringing issues forward to the DZAC for consideration or resolution and communicating activities back to the staff population. As a result of Lab-wide DZAC implementation, each organization now has an active and fully functional safety committee in place such that all staff are involved and represented by their parent organization’s safety program.
Laboratory Zero Accident Council
To provide a means for the communication of safety and other operational issues to executive leadership, a Laboratory Zero Accident Council (LZAC) has also been established, chaired by the Lab Director.
Latest news:
OSD
October 2009: The OSD DZAC met on October 22, 2009. A presentation featuring Dr. Michael Turner, specializing in back surgery from the Kadlec Neuroscience Center, discussed back injuries and prevention measures. Other seasonal topics were covered in the meeting as well, including winter preparations and immunizations. Open dialogue by participants covered how the topics from last month were relayed and put into action, and the success stories of issues identified and corrected in the field.
NSD
September 23, 2009: The HAMMER facility accidental discharge incident was presented which included a time line of the event and lessons learned. A Firearm Safety presentation was given by Steve Rodriguez. A presentation on the NIST Plutonium Contamination Event was provided by Kathy Pryor, Mark Panisko and Anthony Peurrung.
EED
September 2009: The safety topic, Preventing Back Strains, was presented by Rob Cuello. Nancy Sargent lead a discussion on Activity Observations. Special Topic, Subcontractor Safety, was led by Wayne Johnson.
ODS/BSD
October 2009: Safety topic and video was provided on Texting while Driving. The presentation “Stay Healthy through the Cold and Flu Season” was provided by Dr. Sandy Rock, AMH.
FCSD
September 2009: Eric Hill presented information on Human Perfomance Improvement principles' importance in research, and Renee Gray and Clint Buchanan updated the group on Office Moves Safety issues.
EMSL
August 2009: Group members discussed the dangers of attempting to focus on more than one thing at a time. CSM refresher training is in development.
