Safety Update for VCAT

June 2022

Liz Mackey, Chief Safety Officer

Director, Office of Safety Health and Environment
COVID Health and Safety– FY22 Focus on Keeping Current

DOC/NIST Prevention Protocols: Aligned with 

CDC Community Levels (March 2022)

Daily Health Screening: Required at all times

Mask Use and Social Distancing: Required 

during High levels, permitted at all times

Proper Hygiene: Encouraged at all times, 

required during High levels

COVID Screening Testing for campus access: 

Launched May 2022 to meet OMB requirements 

during Medium and High levels

Communication Modes: Town halls, all staff 

emails, NIST directives, guidance documents, 

website, FAQs, training, safety minutes

2

LOW Community 

Level

MEDIUM

Community Level

HIGH

Community Level

Face coverings in 

buildings

Optional for all persons, unless required to 

do so (i.e., following close contact or 

recovery from COVID requirements)

All persons shall wear a face 

covering or mask

Workplace 

distancing

No distancing 

requirements

No distancing 

requirements

All persons, shall maintain 6 feet 

of distance from others, to the 

extent practical/feasible, in all 

workspaces

Workplace 

occupancies Normal occupancy limits

• Occupancy limits determined 

on the ability to maintain 6 feet 

of distance between occupants.

• Elevators, restrooms, and select 

workspaces will be posted if 

there are occupancy limits

Proper hygiene 

practices

All persons should implement proper hygiene 

practices

All persons, shall implement 

proper hygiene practices

Eating and drinking No COVID-related restrictions on eating and 

drinking

All persons shall implement 

hierarchy for safe eating and 

drinking

Campus Access Meet Daily Health 

Screening criteria

• Meet Daily Health Screening criteria

• Federal employees who have not attested to being 

fully vaccinated participate in COVID screening testing

• Associates, contractors, and visitors carry either a form 

attesting to being fully vaccinated or a report of a 

negative COVID test obtained within 72 h of entry 2
NIST COVID Case Management and Case Data (6/6/22)

Location Current COVID 

Positive Cases

Total reported COVID 

Positive Cases

Total

On-Site Cases

Total On-site 

Close Contacts

Workplace 

Transmissions

Total 131 849 224 432 13

Gaithersburg 102 671 173 336 10

Boulder 26 152 50 85 1

Remote 3 26 1 11 2

There are 3,249 federal employees (480 in Boulder, 2769 in Gaithersburg) and approximately 2500 associates

 NIST staff report COVID symptoms, positive tests and close contact to their supervisor 

 Supervisors report cases and close contacts to COVID19@nist.gov

 OSHE provides guidance on space closures, contact notification, isolation and quarantine rules

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FY22 Inspections

 All offices 

 Spaces covered by 

hazard reviews, once or 

twice this year, depending 

on when space reopened

Communications: Email to inspectors; refresher training; Executive Safety Committee

Workplace Inspections Restart for FY22

Workplace Inspector Series

Inspector Refresher Course; Instructor: Diana Masselle

When: 6/21/22, 1-2:30 ET; MS Teams (Click here to join the meeting)

SET sign up: https://nistsafety.nist.gov/Training/Course/ViewCourse/1108

Chemical and Compressed Gas Storage; Instructors: Mike Dinderman, Lisa 

Derby, Nikki Rentz, Mike Blumer

When: 7/21/22, 2:30-4 ET; MS Teams (Click here to join the meeting)

SET sign up: https://nistsafety.nist.gov/Training/Course/ViewCourse/1112

Workplace Inspector Series, Hazardous Waste Instructor: Mike Blackmon

When: 9/21/22, 10:30-12 ET; MS Teams (Click here to join the meeting)

SET sign up: https://nistsafety.nist.gov/Training/Course/ViewCourse/1113
FY22 Workplace Inspection Restart (Data from Q1 and Q2)

Office Inspections 15% of 2019

Lab inspections 25% of 2019

5
Ten Most Frequent Hazards Found During Inspections 

During FY22 (Q1 and Q2)

Top 10 Deficiencies Closed

(During FY22 Q1&Q2)

1. Update General Door Sign (165)

2. Chemical-Labeling (114)

3. Housekeeping (73)

4. WW Surface- Slip, Trip, Fall (55)

5. Eyewash Inspection (50)

6. Chemical- Inventory (48)

7. Chemical Storage (43)

8. Electrical Daisy Chain (35)

9. Compressed Gas Storage (29)

10.Electrical Panel Clearance (27)

914 deficiencies found (FY22)

639 deficiencies cleared (FY22)

 Working on 600 stale deficiencies 6
Incidents and Near Misses (FY22 to 6/3/22)

188

159

203

192

162 163

150

103

77

52

0

50

100

150

200

250

FY13 FY14 FY15 FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22

IRIS Cases FY13 - FY22

Reduce reporting reflects reduced staffing

Incident Type Number of 

Cases

OSHA 

Recordable

Injury 16 6

Illness 12 10

Near Miss 12

Property Damage 5

Contamination 

by Radioactivity 2 0

Spill / Release 1

Exposure 2 0

Other 2 0

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Incident Trends: OSHA Recordables, TRC, DART (FY22 to 6/3/22)

0

10

20

30

40

50

RC

DART

STS

cases

Number of cases

OSHA Recordable Cases by FY

Injuries

Employee Strains Back While Lifting Pipe*

Employee Suffers Fractured Foot in Fall on Uneven Ground*

Employee Injured in Encounter with Campus Geese*

Employee Injured by Elevator Door

Employee Cut Using Knife to Open Box*

Laceration to Three Fingers While Cutting Hose

Illnesses

7 COVID workplace transmission cases*

Employee experiencing neck and back pain teleworking*

Employee has heat rash/allergic reaction*

Employee experiences occupational hearing loss

*DART cases

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Communications – Safety Minutes, Videos, Newsletter, (SR)2

Shocking behavior: What to do immediately after receiving 

an electrical shock. 5/31/22

Suggestions for Mask Etiquette During Low and Medium 

Community Levels 5/2/22

Avoiding Distracted Driving: A Safety Minute Video 5/2/22

COVID-19 Vaccination and Booster Appointments Available 

Fridays at the Gaithersburg Health Unit 

INET Announcement, 4/25/22 

Creature Discomforts Avoiding aggressive geese on campus

4/8/2022

Would you recognize these potential fire hazards while 

working on-site? 3/30/2022

Safety Permit Application now live 3/30/2022

The Safety Standard | FY22 Q1&2 3/24/2022
• NIST-level Incident Response Team 

• Equipment support from OSHE Radiation Safety Division

• Chaired Root Cause Analysis Subcommittee

• Invited NCNR Director to share lessons learned with Executive Safety Committee

• Invited NCNR Director to discuss Safety Culture with Executive Safety Committee 

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

• Change Management Program– Executive Safety Subcommittee (FY22)

• Monitoring, Measuring and Assessments (FY23)

• As SEC Vice Chair, working to strengthen oversight, ensure independence, cover industrial safety impacts

• Working toward better integration of NIST safety within NCNR

• Chief Safety Officer will be ex officio member of NCNR Safety Evaluation Committee 

• OSHE safety specialist will be embedded at NCNR

• Formalizing collaboration, mutual assistance between OSHE Radiation Safety - NCNR Health Physics

OSHE Support for NCNR: Actions Following Feb 2021 Event
Change Management Program to Mitigate Safety-Related Risk

Informed by 

• ISO 45001, section 8.1.3

• ISO 31000, sections 6.4, 6.5

• Incidents at NIST

Change Types

• Regulatory, legal, other requirements

• Organizational, structural

• Workforce, individual staff

• Facilities, work environment

• Work processes, technology

• Equipment and materials

Inform Enterprise Risk Management

Assess Residual Risk

Implement Processes to Mitigate Risk

Evaluate Safety-related Risk

Identify Change

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FY22 Q3/Q4 Focus Areas

 Return to Campus/Transition to Hybrid

 Communications (SR)2 Safety Reminders for a Safe Return 

 Resuming workplace inspections 

 IAQ assessments, ensuring safety equipment is functioning 

 Developing safety plans for high risk staff 

 Continuing to maintain COVID safety protocols, manage cases

 Institutionalizing NCNR lessons identified 

 Change Management Directive development with Executive Safety Committee

 Ensuring Safety Regulatory Risk informs Enterprise Risk Management

 Executive Safety Committee engagement on safety culture improvement

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