Safety Update for VCAT

February 2022

Liz Mackey, Chief Safety Officer

Director, Office of Safety Health and Environment
COVID Health and Safety– FY21 Focus on Keeping Current

Prevention Protocols: 

Ø Vaccines (voluntary)

Ø Daily Health and Travel Screening 

Ø Basic Precautions: masks; distancing; personal hygiene

Ø Job specific controls (e.g., barriers, disinfecting shared 

tools, N95 masks)

Case management: close contacts, close/disinfect affected 

spaces and provide instructions on return to work criteria

Monitoring: CDC guidance, scientific literature on COVID-19

Communication: Town halls, all staff emails, NIST directives, 

guidance documents, website, FAQs, training, safety minutes

2

Review 

Policy

Review 

Science

Revise

Issue New

Protocols

Communicate 

with all staff
NIST COVID Case Metrics (2/1/22) Reflect Omicron Surge

>1000 symptomatic, positive, quarantine cases 

211 cases required response plans

Total positive cases reported: 498

§ Physically present at NIST Gaithersburg: 79

§ Physically present at NIST Boulder: 23

§ Physically present at remote work site: 1

181 close contacts of the 103 on-site cases:

§ 128 in Gaithersburg

§ 42 in Boulder

§ 11 on remote work sites

Workplace transmission:

§ 2 on remote site 

§ 2 on Gaithersburg campus

Note: OSHE investigates case data to look for 

clusters that may indicate related cases

Gaithersburg Cases

Positive (2/1/22; 67)

Symptomatic (2/1/22; 9)

Boulder Cases

Positive (2/1/22; 12)

Symptomatic (2/1/22; 4)
FY21 Workplace Inspections

Ø In-use spaces with known hazards, 

first priority

Ø Unused spaces with potential hazards, 

second priority

Ø Office inspections lower priority

Ø Note: Safety walk-throughs of many 

occupied spaces were conducted but 

not recorded as workplace inspections
Ten Most Frequent Hazards Found During Inspections Top 10 Deficiencies Fixed FY21

1. Chemical Labeling (101)

2. General Hazard Signage (58)

3. Lighting (62)

4. Housekeeping (68)

5. Slips, Trips, and Falls (43)

6. Electrical Panel Clearance (43)

7. Chemical Inventory (45)

8. Chemical Storage (49)

9. Eyewash and Safety Shower 

Inspection (Under Contract)

10.Compressed Gas (30)
CY21 Incident Trends: Total reports (includes near misses)

Reduced 

Staff

Trend Identified: Increasing number of incidents involving contractors

Key Corrective Actions: Develop Contractor Safety Program; improve oversight of contractors
CY21 Incident Data: OSHA Recordables, TRC, DART

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

FY06FY07FY08FY09FY10FY11FY12FY13FY14FY15FY16FY17FY18FY19FY20FY21

OSHA Recordables by Year

RC DART Illness

OSHA Recordable Injuries: 2 STF; 3 material handling; cut; spider bite

OSHA Recordable Illnesses: 6 STS; 2 COVID transmission cases
ü New or revised safety requirements

ü Lessons from incidents, inspections, events 

ü Notice of training events

ü Boulder only (n=2)

Communications – Safety Minutes and INET Announcements

Safety Minutes (n=9) 

ü Product Alerts (n=4)

ü Workplace Inspection Learning Series Kick-off (3)

ü Flu shots at NIST HU

ü COVID Shots at NIST HU

INET Announcements (n=9)
NCNR Event 

– Update on 

Recent

NIST and 

OSHE 

Actions

• NIST-level Incident Response Team (ongoing)

• OSHE assisted NCNR with with Safety Culture assessment 

• NCNR Director discussed event at Executive Safety Committee meetings

• Two planned safety programs will be informed by NCNR lessons learned

• Change Management

• Monitoring, Measuring and Assessments

• Planned: Better integration of OSHE-managed and NCNR-managed safety

• Underway: NIST Director engaged external Subject Matter Experts for an 

independent assessment of NIST response to the event
Current Focus Areas

v COVID management and Return to Campus/Transition to Hybrid

v Complete Safety Management System program elements

v Foster continual improvement of safety culture at NIST

v Institutionalizing lessons identified
Questions or Feedback