University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory Minutes of the 91st Health and Safety Committee Meeting held on Wednesday 17th July 2002 in GC22 Present: P Brooks (Chairman), A Brown, C Bean, PJL Crofts, M Kuhn, R Moss, P Neaves, University Fire Officer (Maurice Read) K Wheddon (Secretary) Apologies: M Levitt, G Titmus 0. New Member The committee welcomed Archie Brown who is the new Building Services Manager. 1. Items for Any Other Business Outside Caterers and their Policies 2. Any Corrections to Previous Minutes None 3. Accidents and matters arising from Accident Reports NR017: A member of staff caught her head on the corner of the shelf. A first aider was called and it was requested that the corners were protected. NR018: A member of the Cafeteria Staff broke her nail causing bleeding. A first aider was called and it was decided that the nails should be cut to prevent this happening again. 4. Personnel and Workplace Assessment Referral Forms None 5. Matters Arising from Previous Minutes 5.1(6.1) Whittle The Cycle path/pavement that crosses the access road into the Department/Microsoft’s car park has now been completed. The committee discussed the road markings for the cycle lane that appears up/down JJ Thomson Avenue and the side road that joins JJ Thomson Avenue that gives way to cycle’s and not to cars. It was decided that PB would contact Peter Taylor (EMBS) and chase this up. Action: PB 5.2(6.2) Fire MK will be contacting a member of staff within the Lab who is visually impaired to consult him on his views about the visual markers on the bottom 2 stairs. Action: MK The beam smoke detectors on the second floor are still enabled at the moment. Defensor are due to come in and clean out the detectors. It was brought to the committee’s attention that during a fire alarm procedure one of the Defensor engineers came down from the second floor to let people it was a false alarm. People were informed they could re-enter the building but after a consultation with the University Fire Officer at the Health and Safety Meeting it is confirmed that once the Fire Brigade has been called, under no circumstances are we to return into the building until the Fire Brigade gives permission. During Exam week we were given special permission from the University Fire Officer. In the event of a Fire Alarm, it was agreed that people in Lecture Theatres 1 and 2 would remain in their places unless it was discovered to be an emergency. It was left to the decision of the Invigilators and the Fire Warden on site at the time. There were no fire alarms during the exams. The fire assembly point situated outside the front of the building near the cycle shed is still to be moved to the far end of the cycle shed. A meeting was held on 27th June about the Building Code W46 – Fire Risk Assessment. A report was received and questions were asked as to who should be dealing with what. Maurice Read said that most of the work carried out would be dealt with by EMBS. Anything else would be departmental. There will be new signs around the building telling people appropriate fire exit routes. At present this is being dealt with by the University Fire Officer. PAN did a tour of the building to find any Fridges, Kettles etc. that should be in the Common Room Kitchen rather than offices. There is a user in GE15 who has been given special permission to have a microwave in the office. Therefore instruction for a door closer to be fitted is being dealt with by Maurice Read. The department is being issued with Pagers for people with hearing impediments. These are on order at present. 5.3(6.3) Rodents in the Building PJLC contacted DRE and they assured him that there are different generations of poison and the current poison being used within the inside of the building is a later generation which will not put the owl’s at risk. DRE are still using the older poison for the outside of the building. AB agreed to follow this up further. Action: AB 5.4(6. 4) Recycling Bins PJLC contacted the Administrator in the Whittle Lab. She said they don’t produce a great deal but would be happy to share our scheme. Stores will contact Anglia recycling to ask if they will donate some more green bins. Action: PJLC/HB 5.5(6.5) Laser Pointers PB contacted stores about the supply of Lasers and after looking through various books and it being very expensive to purchase a large number of them, the committee decided that PB would go back and look into it further to see if he could come up with any other solution. Action: PB 5.6(6.7) Public Evening/Weekend Functions KW contacted Will Hudson from the Safety Office to see exactly where we stand in event of someone actually being in the building during a function. He said that it was the department’s responsibility to provide buildings that are safe, e.g. Fire alarms that work, adequate lighting, safe access and egress etc. MR suggested that we contact him and he will come in and discuss this further. Action: KW/MR 5.7(6.9) Safety Inspection Report Form The Safety Report from NG Bailey has been added to the list of outstanding snags for the building. This will be discussed at the Building Users Meeting and then AB will report back after the meeting. Action AB 6. Any Other Business 6.1 RM reported that after an early evening function in the building with some outside caterers their policy stated they should be using hard wearing mats to cover spillages on the floors rather than the polythene sheet that we provided at the time. It was suggested that we now use mats for this purpose. 7. Correspondence 7.1 Glass Entrance Doors The seal on the glass front entrance doors keep coming off. The glass company came in and resealed the door and it was put back on strips to make it more secure. AB reported the seal on the glass door coming off again so he has taken the matter in hand. Action AB 7.2 Temperature/Fire Doors in Lecture Theatres It has been reported that Lecture Theatre 2 is really cold. PJLC commented that the air conditioning doesn’t work. There was also discussion about whether the doors leading out to the cycle sheds should be Fire Doors and be on a locking system or should it be left that students can use it as a normal exit route. This is to be discussed further. 7.3 Mastic Sealant within the Building There were complaints in the building about the smell of mastic sealant being used in individual rooms. After action taken there was a change to low odour Dow corning silicone that solved the problem. 7.4 First Aid Conference There were two matters raised at the University’s annual First Aid conference was held on the 26th June which were particularly relevant to our department. It appears general practise to provide face shields for resuscitation, so each first aider has been issued with one. We are awaiting guidance from central authorities about putting them in public First Aid Boxes. It was reported at the conference that University First Aiders are not insured to treat tenants unless there is an explicit clause in the tenancy agreement relating to first aid cover. This was very timely as we were finalising an agreement at the time. 7.5 Power Shut Down Last week the department had a power shut down. During this time it was decided that a fire drill be carried out to check everything functioned without power. It was noticed that although the courtyard fire doors opened, they could not be closed until the power was restored. It was decided that this wasn’t really an issue as long as the fire doors did open. 8. Date for future Meetings Meeting will take place at 14:15 in GC22 on the third Wednesday of every month unless stated otherwise:- THERE WILL BE NO AUGUST MEETING 18th September, 16th October, 20th November, 18th December 2002 PB/KW 28th August 2002