Vol 3. Issue 1  OCTOBER

A Quarterly Newsletter by The Environmental Health and Safety Office

SPOTLIGHT: Assistant Director of Chemical Safety and Environmental Compliance

 

Heather Jackson, EHSO’s new assistant director for Chemical Safety and Environmental Compliance, is a Chicago native and graduate from the University of Chicago (Phi Beta Kappa). She completed her Master’s degree in Environmental Science and Engineering at Virginia Tech. As a Certified Hazardous Materials Manager with over ten years of environmental and safety experience, she brings a new level of expertise to UIC having held various positions in government, industry, and consulting.

 

Heather describes her new position as,

 

“… truly my dream job. The environmental, health, and safety issues of a university like UIC rival a small city and are very diverse and challenging.”

 

Heather started as Assistant Director in September of 2009, immediately working with her staff to focus on making the lab safety program more data-driven and targeted toward the most pressing issues. A new prerogative she created was a list of chemicals called the “UIC Chemicals of Concern.” These chemicals in laboratories pose a high risk because they are extremely hazardous and they are regulated by a federal agency such as the Occupational Health & Safety Administration (OSHA).

 

The Chemical Safety group is also focused on more effective chemical management in non-laboratory areas such as building storage facilities. In addition, a new hazard communication-awareness (HazCom) program has been developed for non-laboratory spaces.

 

Heather is currently working with Building Services to review all the chemicals they work with in order to determine proper personal protection equipment (PPE) management and appropriate Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) maintenance. Another new initiative is the Asbestos Awareness Program. The primary objective of the Asbestos Program is to minimize the exposure of building occupants to airborne asbestos fibers.

 

Heather has also started an initiative to improve UIC’s Hazardous Waste removal program. The program will include a hazardous waste tracking system (chain-of-custody) and an electronic based campus outreach effort. The focus will be to increase customer service by better tracking and status reporting of hazardous chemical waste removal efforts.

 

Heather has many more initiatives planned to improve UIC’s Chemical Safety Program. As she states quite often,

 

“We must never be complacent regarding employee safety and environmental stewardship.”

 

Heather can be reached at (312) 413-9706 or via e-mail at heather9@uic.edu.

 

 

 

 

· SPOTLIGHT: Assistant Director of Chemical Safety & Environmental Compliance

 

· Asbestos Program

 

· Indoor Air Quality

 

· Lessons to be Learned

 

· Environmental Health & Safety Trainings

 

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