Last spring, the Boston Fire Department set a deadline of April 1 for the city's laboratories to inventory their chemicals, biological agents, and other materials. In prior years, this requirement would have meant a laborious process of filling out forms by hand - sometimes with dozens of items listed - submitting them to the Harvard Environmental Health and Safety office (EH&S), and waiting for a placard to be made to be fastened to lab doors.
But instead the process last spring was relatively painless, thanks to the HSPH Information Technology (IT) office, whose mandate includes developing online systems that aid the entire School community. Web developer Kevin Wnek created an online database system that replaces the paper forms and that allows users to instantly print out placards with safety codes, letting emergency responders know what levels of flammable, combustible, corrosive, biological, and radioactive materials are housed in each lab.
"If they need special protective gear, they know right away,'' Wnek said.
The placards also contain contact information for principal investigators and individuals who are second-in-charge of labs, in case fire officials need to reach them in an emergency.
The completion of the paper form could be "painful," said Chiu-Oan Ngooi, health and safety officer for EH&S.
Now, once researchers initially enter their data into the system, they need only update it online each time thereafter.
"It's kind of like doing your taxes online,'' noted Wnek. "A lot of your information is saved. You just go in and update and move on.''
The online system allows users to instantly print coded safety placards for lab doors.
Joy Lawrence, a research associate in the Department of Environmental Health at HSPH, said the inventory database system is a big improvement.
"You can do an inventory of all the appropriate material in your lab, whether chemical, physical, or biological, and you can generate right away the correct placard," she said. "It's a big time saver, and it's user friendly.''
The system went online in February. Developed at HSPH, the system has been embraced by Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. All 795 labs in the three participating schools filled out their required inventories in time for the April deadline.
Now that the database is up and running, other research institutions around the city have shown interest in using the program, he said, adding, "Nobody else is really doing anything like this right now.''
HSPH members who are interested in learning more about the database may contact Kevin Wnek at kwnek@hsph.harvard.edu.
—ML
Copyright, 2009, President and Fellows of Harvard College
