Effective risk management is crucial for maintaining a safe and productive lab environment. While lab managers often shoulder the bulk of this responsibility, involving the entire team can significantly enhance safety culture. Veronica Thron, research, general, and occupational safety manager at UC Davis, explains this team-based approach as well as how to prevent common safety issues.

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Q: What are key risk mitigation strategies for lab managers?

A: Everyone must play a role in risk management. Many lab managers often try to do it all themselves—updating documentation, training, housekeeping, inventories. The challenge with this arrangement is that there is no ownership in risk mitigation programs by other lab members, the lab managers are overstretched, and lab members don’t know what to do when the manager is not present. 

Here are some tips I give to lab managers to help with risk management and increase the safety culture within their lab:

Delegate: The distribution of tasks allows others to have a firsthand understanding of the safety programs in the workplace. Tasks like chemical inventories, housekeeping, and safety equipment checks are good ones for the whole team to work on.

Before training a on a new procedure, each member should learn to conduct a quick risk assessment of the hazards they are working with and come up with ways to mitigate that risk. Here’s a helpful question to ask:

Are they working with new chemicals, equipment, or procedures? If so, train them to do a quick literature search to identify the risks, including reviewing safety data sheets, equipment manuals, and operating procedures. This way, they have already given the risks a thought and have a basic understanding of risk mitigation. 

Create a psychologically safe working environment where people feel able to share without fear of reprisal.

Take turns presenting safety information to the team: Once per month, have one of the team members give a 15-minute presentation on a safety topic. Have a member summarize the topic in a 10-slide presentation. This can be on proper chemical storage, chemical labeling, safety documents, responding to and reporting injuries, fires, emergency preparedness, or lab security, for example.

The person giving the presentation will learn the subject better and so will the others listening to them. Use the combined expertise within your group. For example, have the person with the strongest chemical background present on chemical compatibility and storage. And don’t forget to include junior staff or visiting scholars. They can benefit from this opportunity, too. 

Share lessons learned: Use lab meetings or other communications to share lessons learned. An important and overlooked aspect is to ask, “did someone have a near miss while using equipment or conducting a project?” Many lab accidents and near misses go unreported. Create a psychologically safe working environment where people feel able to share without fear of reprisal. Add this to your group meeting agenda to normalize the topic. 

Q: What skills are needed, and how do you do it? 

A: Versatility. Lab managers are the key risk managers for their lab. They are the gatekeepers to resources, prioritizing tasks, purchasing equipment, and delegating responsibilities. For this reason, they need to know a little about everything and enough to know what the greatest risks in the lab are. Is it the specific hazardous materials, equipment, or high turnover of staff? What are the tasks that have the greatest risk and would have the most catastrophic results if it went bad? The lab manager also has the key responsibility of making leadership aware of when something is seriously wrong. 

I remember a time when I was a lab manager and had trained a volunteer that did great in the lab. The volunteer left to work for another colleague’s lab before coming back to work for us full time. Initially we trusted them to operate independently. However, we noticed our samples were contaminated by our control. Something was amiss. We quickly found contamination of our fluorescent control of pathogenic E. coli 0157 all over the lab. We had to decontaminate everything including pipettes, biosafety cabinets, refrigerators and incubators. We traced the contamination to our returning lab member and tried many times to retrain the person. 

It seemed that they’d picked up poor hygiene habits in the other lab due to their different work and safety cultures. After consulting with the principal investigator, we determined this person’s poor lab practices were exposing others to a serious strain of pathogenic E. coli. We could not accept that risk, and we had to let them go. 

Q: What types of errors are often made?

A: Not paying attention to lab ergonomics. Risk management of hazardous materials like chemical, biological, and radiation often gets more attention in the lab. However, there is a less notable but nevertheless true risk in the lab. Ergonomics may seem like a minor risk, but repetitive injuries are not uncommon in a lab. These injuries can take a long time to heal and may require accommodation during treatment. 

Many employers have a well-developed office ergonomics program, but few invest the same level of support in laboratory ergonomics. Repetitive tasks like pipetting, overreaching, not taking breaks, and bad body posture can all result in a repetitive injury.  UCLA has a great video on pipette ergonomics and lab bench set-up. It can be hard to see your own bad posture and it helps when the lab manager is familiar with the program and can suggest improvements. 

Q: What's overlooked? 

A: From my experience in the academic lab setting, minors, interns, and visiting scholars in the lab are frequently overlooked. Some units see an increase in minors in the lab, interns, and visiting scholars for summer internships. One of the greatest challenges that comes with these groups in risk management is limiting the hazards they can be exposed to and what level of training they should receive.

Ergonomics may seem like a minor risk, but repetitive injuries are not uncommon in a lab.

Furthermore, many institutions like UC Davis have strict policies for minors. There are also requirements for background checks for anyone working and/or who is alone with the minors. Minors, interns, and visiting scholars must always be escorted and not left alone in the lab. These groups present a challenge because their visit may be short and may not allow for the comprehensive training program used for other members in the lab. For this reason, it’s important to be strategic and intentional about what they can and can’t do in the lab and make sure they are always accompanied by a more experienced lab member. 

Veronica Thron manages the Field, Industrial, Occupational, Laboratory, Hazard Communication, and Radiation Safety programs within the Department of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) at the University of California, Davis. With an extensive career in the field of safety, she exemplifies a comprehensive safety professional and adept manager. Her experience encompasses roles within the UC Davis EHS department, as well as the School of Medicine, the School of Veterinary Medicine, and the College of Engineering.

Beyond her role as a seasoned safety professional, she also serves as a mentor, guide, and source of inspiration. Her team benefits from her wealth of knowledge and her skill in fostering a collaborative and growth-oriented environment. Her mentorship extends university-wide, fostering a culture of prioritizing safety.