Berkeley Lab

Safety Week 2021

The Physical Sciences Area held Safety Week September 27 – October 1, 2021. The popular tradition began as Safety Day, an ATAP initiative spearheaded by Deputy Division Director Asmita Patel and Safety Coordinator Pat Thomas. The Engineering Division soon joined with us, and the Physics Division and the ALS-U Project followed suit.

Natalie Roe and Cameron Geddes

Natalie Roe, Associate Laboratory Director for Physical Sciences, and Cameron Geddes, ATAP Division Director, on a Safety Week walkthrough of Building 77A, where superconducting magnets are made.

For an investment of about 0.5% of the work year, Safety Week brings the benefits of cleanliness, organization, and up-to-date training to our labs, shops, and offices.

This page summarizes the outcomes and celebrates the individual and team awards, as well as preserving reminiscences of the day’s events, including the midday presentations.

Click here for the original Safety Day page that announced the event and provided resources for use during it.

Contact Asmita Patel or Pat Thomas if you would like to learn more about Safety Week efforts.

What We Accomplished During Safety Week

Similarly to the traditional Safety Day of previous years, the expected level of effort was a total of one work day. We spread it over a week to provide everyone the flexibility to complete the activities, emphasizing safety issues that pertained especially to them.

As always, we emphasized good housekeeping and identification of hazards in common areas, offices, labs, and shops. Water connections on technical equipment; chemical hygiene and stewardship; training; and review and updating of procedures came in for special attention this year.

Safety Week Memories in Photos

Here are some highlights of our work. To see more, visit our Safety Week photostory.

Cameron Geddes in a screen shot of Safety Week
Asmita Patel on Safety Week Zoom call
Goat grazing is one of the Lab's favorite wildfire prevention methods

Presentations Were a Popular Highlight

The weeklong format allowed informative presentations about topics such as

•  Moving from Bystander to Upstander (see also the Upstander page on the Lab’s IDEA in Action website)
•  Q&A with an expert roundtable on the evolving COVID-19 situation
•  Upcoming security improvements and tips for emergency preparedness
•  Chemical stewardship

Everyone was also encouraged to take “ISM 101.” This 20-minute online course was developed by the Engineering Division to help us all understand the core principles of Integrated Safety Management (ISM) and how its five steps help ensure our own safety — and the safety of those around us. The course emphasizes the normalized risks that hide beneath a cloak of familiarity and complacency in routine work, and how the principles of ISM apply to everything we do.

Two Not-Jeopardy screenshots

An online game of Not-Jeopardy brought the busy week to a lighthearted, yet safety-oriented conclusion with numerous fun and educational topics that included environment, safety, and health; operations; and UC, Lab, and DOE history.


Safety Week Poster and Photostory

Thumbnail of Safety Week poster, with link to full-size PDF

Click for fullsize PDF

Pat Thomas in a lab

Click to view photostory

To learn more about Safety Week, view the poster that helped announce and set the theme for the event, and visit the photo album that tells the story in detail at all phases: preparation, cleanup, quality assurance and management walkthroughs, and the game of Not-Jeopardy that brought us back together at week’s end.