NIST Director’s Safety Update

Dr. Laurie Locascio

Under Secretary of Commerce for 

Standards and Technology and 

Director of NIST

June 13, 2023
NIST must fully integrate safety into decision-making processes for all 

aspects of our mission, from planning through mission delivery, over the full 

life-cycle of programs and projects. 

We recognize that we must fundamentally change our culture and our way 

of doing business to achieve lasting and meaningful change to improve 

safety at NIST.

Starting Point
Building Momentum and Leading Change

elevate/flag safety topics for the organization

instill safety culture from bottom up

not see safety as a chore integrate safety through lens of equal opportunity

integrate safety into regularly scheduled discussions

solicit staff reactions

reinforce importance of safety in office environment

hold ourselves accountable 

communicating safety expectations 

champion and live a new safety culture 

check in on staff more frequently

be example to colleagues

ask questions

help staff feel empowered to ask questions in safety 

make resources available for excellence in safety
Purpose: Oversee and 

track to completion 

safety improvement 

actions intended to 

address specific NIST 

Safety Commission 

recommendations

Chartered Executive Safety Improvement Team

Areas

Leadership

Stronger 

OSHE

Process 

Improvement

Process: Convene 

teams and empower 

staff to develop and 

implement actions, 

communicate 

changes

Accountability: 

Report regularly to 

the NIST Director, 

inform NLB and staff 

of progress
Committing Resources

• New Hires

• Facilities Repairs

• Safety Assessments 

• Professional External Safety Consulting
Leadership Expectations and Accountabilities: NIST must make safety an integral part of 

the NIST culture, commit to continuous improvement of safety systems, processes and 

culture.

OSHE’s Role and Authorities: NIST must strengthen the role of the Chief Safety Officer by 

ensuring the CSO has organizational responsibilities within ERM and SCMMR, and a 

formal accountability to the NIST Director and of safety professionals by requiring OSHE 

staff to specify hazard mitigation measures during inspections, investigations and 

hazard reviews.

Processes, Tools and Communications: NIST must develop new and enhance existing 

operational safety processes and tools to actively manage safety related risks, and have 

processes to assess and elevate risk to enterprise level in a timely manner, and ensure 

strategic and practical communications that are essential to achieving culture change.

Executive-level Key Action Areas
NIST must make safety an integral part of the NIST culture and commit to 

continuous improvement of safety practices and culture

Importance: We recognize that leadership plays an essential role in driving culture 

change by creating the conditions for positive changes to occur and thrive, and by 

supporting continuous improvement in safety systems, processes and safety 

culture NIST-wide.

Strategy: Our strategy is to set clear expectations, enforce accountability, ensure 

communications are strategic and targeted, engage staff at all levels, develop, 

implement and maintain a Safety Culture Improvement Plan informed by survey 

data, relevant KPIs, supervisor and staff feedback, and best practices.

Leadership Expectations and Accountability
NIST must strengthen the role of the Chief Safety Officer by ensuring organizational 

responsibilities within ERM and SCMMR and requiring formal accountability to the NIST Director. 

NIST must strengthen the role of safety professionals by requiring OSHE staff to specify hazard 

mitigation measures during inspections, investigations, and hazard reviews.

Importance: NIST recognizes that its post-2008 approach of assigning responsibility for safe 

operations to line management unintentionally undervalued the expertise of NIST safety 

professionals, and provided no authority to competent safety staff to enforce basic safety 

requirements. NIST recognizes value of competent safety professionals and the role they must 

play in ensuring workplace safety.

Strategy: NIST is adopting a strategy that ensures that the CSO is accountable to the NIST 

Director, informs enterprise-level risk assessments and resource allocations for facility 

improvements, and that empowers OSHE safety professionals to ensure workplace hazards are 

properly mitigated.

OSHE’s Role and Authorities
NIST must develop new and enhance existing operational safety processes and tools to 

actively manage safety related risks, and have processes to assess and elevate risk to 

enterprise level in a timely manner, and ensure strategic and practical communications that 

are essential to achieving culture change.

Importance: NIST recognizes that safety must be incorporated into administrative and 

operational processes to achieve a systematic inclusion of safety considerations in all 

aspects of resource management. Easy to use tools and straightforward, practical 

communications are essential to support these changes.

Strategy: NIST’s strategy is to develop a world class safety management system based on 

established international standards and best practices for continuous improvement, 

supported by easy to use systems that facilitate completion of safety-related tasks. 

Communications on safety requirements will include practical training, case studies and 

lessons learned from incidents to facilitate proper implementation of requirements and 

improve workplace safety.

Processes, Tools, and Communications
Workplace Safety in Hybrid Federal Labs

10

NIST charge to: understand the effect that hybrid working 

environments have on safety proficiency, cultures, and 

practices at federal laboratories

• Provide sound recommendations for integrating safe work 

practices in a high-quality, fast-paced research environment 

operating in hybrid mode. 

• Example Questions: How has the shift to a hybrid workplace at federal 

laboratories impacted safe work practices in laboratory settings, how has this 

shift affected the safety culture, and what efforts are underway to identify and 

manage these historic shifts?
Workshop Co-chairs Just Identified

11

Dr. Gerald Keusch

Professor of Medicine

Associate Director, National Emerging Infectious 

Diseases Laboratories, Boston University

Credit: Boston University

Dr. Carol J. Burns

Deputy Director for Research, 

Lawrence Berkeley National 

Laboratory

Credit: Lawrence Berkeley Lab
Moving Forward

Safety as a core value
OSHE Safety Update

Dr. Stephen Banovic

Deputy Director, Office of Safety, 

Health, and Environment

June 13, 2023
Agenda

 Update regarding 9/26 Incident

• NIST Internal Investigation

• OSHA Inspections

 Current COVID policies and protocols 

 Performance Metrics
9/26 Incident – NIST Report

 NIST Report completed on April 7

 Part A – Investigated the specific incident

• Two causal factors identified

• 11 root causes

• 8 contribution factors

• 26 corrective actions (“Local”)

• 11 recommendations

 Part B – Ensured breadth, depth, and sustainability of CAs

• 15 corrective actions (NIST-wide)

 Weaknesses

• Safety Management System

• Safety Culture

 NIST Executive Safety Improvement Program Team chartered
Key Actions: Leadership Expectations and 

Accountability

Strategic Communications

• Completed: NIST leadership safety off-site was held to discuss the circumstance of the incident, discuss safety practices, 

and require leaders to define their commitment to taking personal responsibility for safety

• Completed: All-staff Town Hall meeting held; NIST Director committed to taking meaningful actions to improve safety at 

NIST, conveyed the expectation that all staff must accept personal responsibility for safety and participate in continual 

improvement of safety

• Completed: NIST Director meetings with OSHE staff

• Underway: Management by walking around – safety conversations (MOPs)

• Planned: NIST Director will host focus groups to discuss safety concerns and safety culture improvement actions

• Planned: Strategic communication plan to support roll out of safety improvements

Safety Culture 

• Completed: Survey, report issued and posted 

• Completed: Safety Culture Improvement Plan drafted (May 15, 2023), 

• Planned: Facilitated employee focus groups to develop bench-level actions (Summer 2023)

• Planned: Safety culture benchmarking activities

Accountability

• Underway: Team lead by Human Resources is strengthening safety performance elements

• Underway: CSO formally accountable to NIST Director, required regular reports and briefings
Key Actions: OSHE’s Role and Authorities

Chief Safety Officer

• Completed: CSO became a voting member in May of the Enterprise Risk Management Council (ERM)

• Completed: CSO to hire additional staff to meet increased responsibilities for workplace inspections, incident 

investigations, and hazard reviews (May)

• Underway: NCNR embed position posted

• Underway: CSO is meeting with OU Directors to assess need for embedded safety staff to enhance services and 

strengthen partnerships

• Underway: Assessment of organizational structure of OSHE and other safety-related positions at NIST

Safety Staff

• Completed: OSHE staff member detailed to ERM to assist with risk assessment method development

• Planned: Revise workplace inspection program to specify OSHE lead on inspections of workspaces covered by hazard 

reviews

• Planned: Revision of Hazard Review Program to require OSHE staff to participate in hazard assessments for hazardous 

work

• Planned: Building master keys will be provided to BSHED and GSHED Chiefs to ensure safety inspectors and investigators 

have access to all campus spaces
Key Actions: Processes and Tools

Processes

• Completed: A new process to facilitate OSHE review of facilities maintenance, testing, and inspections for regulatory compliance 

• Underway: A comprehensive change management program to proactively manage safety is in development

• Underway: Safety checklist for exit-from-duty added to Service Now to ensure proper management of hazardous materials and transfer 

of safety roles and responsibilities

• Underway: ERM team to develop methods for assessing safety related risks, incorporating these into enterprise level risk portfolio

• Planned: External ISO 45001 assessment and experts to assist OSHE in developing an audit and assessment program 

• Planned: Safety program revisions for investigations, hazard reviews, and workplace inspections to improve risk assessments and 

improve consistency across NIST

Tools

• Underway: Evaluation of COTS IT tools for integrated safety management

• Underway: Benchmarking visits to NREL and ORNL to evaluate tools, safety training

• Underway: Complete the development of NIST safety dashboard display of workplace inspections, incident investigations, and training 

actions

Practical Communications

• Underway: Use of Safety Advisory Committee to provide practical communications to targeted audiences to communicate lessons 

learned 

• Planned: Revise training to improve relevancy to work conducted, include practical applications that incorporate lessons learned from 

incidents

• Planned: Provide training that discusses the incident and lessons we have learned or must learn
9/26 Incident – OSHA Inspection Citations 

(03/21)

Abatement 1

Abatement 2

 Safety Inspection – Three “Serious” Violations

• Employees not protected from fall hazards when working near an 

unprotected side or edge which was greater than 6 feet above a 

lower level.

• Floor openings were not covered.

• Employees not protected from overhead fall hazards.
9/26 Incident – OSHA Inspection Citations 

(cont.)

 Health Inspection – Five “Other Than Serious” Violations

• Three related to NIST’s Respiratory Protection program

− Had not developed a site-specific written respiratory 

protection program

− Did not designate a program administrator to administer or 

oversee the respiratory protection program and to conduct 

the required evaluations of program effectiveness

− Employee(s) using tight-fitting facepiece respirators were 

not fit tested prior to initial use of the respirator

• Two associated with respirable crystalline silica

− Did not assess the exposure of each employee who was 

or may reasonably be expected to be exposed to 

respirable crystalline silica

− Did not ensure that each employee has access to labels 

on containers of crystalline silica and safety data sheets 

and is trained in accordance with the provisions of HCS

NIST Abatement Actions

• Chemical Hazard Communication program updated

• New form was developed to document site-specific 

evaluation and respiratory protection requirements

• Health Hazard Evaluations and Medical Surveillance 

program created to cover all regulated materials

− New form to document enrollment in medical 

surveillance program

− New Respirable Crystalline Silica Safety 

procedure
NIST COVID Policies and Protocols

 Updated COVID-19 policies and procedures in effect on Monday, 

May 22.

 NIST policies and protocols align with CDC guidance to help 

minimize the potential for COVID-19 infection on our campuses –

new NIST S 2200.06: Managing COVID with the Ending of the 

Public Health Emergency.

• No campus entry screening requirements; however, you stay home 

when you are ill

• Campus access restrictions if you test positive for COVID-19

• Supervisors and sponsors only report work-related COVID-positive 

cases

• COVID-19 prevention measures no longer required, may choose to 

practice

 Updated “COVID-19 Health and Safety” webpage with FAQs
Incident Reports FY23 (through 5/31/23)

*27 of 28 illness cases are work-related COVID-19 cases

Total reports includes all incident and near misses 

0

50

100

150

200

250

FY13 FY14 FY15 FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22 FY23

IRIS Cases FY13 - FY23

Type Number of 

Cases

# of 

Affected 

Staff

OSHA 

Recordable 

Cases (DARTs)

Injury 26 27 8 (5)

Illness* 28 35 23 (19)

Near Miss 35 0

Property Damage 7

Contamination by Radioactivity 4 7 0

Spill / Release 7

Exposure 3 2 1

Other 4 0 0

Total Cases FYTD 114

Comparison of first 8 months of FY22 to FY23:

• Number of cases more than double (52 vs 114)

• Near Misses almost tripled (12 vs 35)

• Illnesses more than doubled (12 vs 28)

• Injuries up over 60% (16 vs 26)
OSHA Recordable Cases Representing Days 

Away, Restricted, or Transferred

32 total recordable cases

Recordable Illnesses (23)

• 22 are COVID cases with 13 related to travel; 1 

STS case

• 19 classified as DART cases (all COVID)

Recordable Injuries (8)

• 5 classified as DART cases:

- Slip/fall in restroom results in concussion possibly 

due to wet footwear.

- Back and shoulder strain during removal of barrel 

from fuel oil burner in CUP

- Employee injured when personnel lift fell off truck 

lift gate

- Employee fell on stairs while carrying equipment for 

outage

- Employee injured while carrying mail tub

Recordable Exposure (1)

• Staff member felt ill after being exposed to 

natural gas odor
Questions and Discussion