Director’s Safety Statement

Safety is the responsibility of each employee, user, contractor and visitor at NSCL. We are individually and collectively the owners of the NSCL Safety Program. We each have the right to expect that at the end of our day, we will be returning home without having suffered a work-related injury or illness. It is our responsibility to ensure that for our coworkers and ourselves.
MSU and NSCL employ a staff of safety professionals to help ensure a workplace free of recognized hazards, but in the final analysis they are not the ones that make the laboratory a safe place to work and conduct experiments. Safety requires a conscious effort from each of us. Always remember, effective safety requires your active participation. Personnel must plan and perform their work in a safe manner, following standard procedures and seeking advice from the experts if there is any doubt regarding how to safely proceed. Supervisors, together with appropriate staff, must review work plans and project execution to assure that only qualified personnel are assigned and safety procedures are consistently incorporated into every task and project. As appropriate, personnel are expected to provide pre-task input and post-task feedback on how to perform work more safely and/or more effectively. I along with the rest of the NSCL management insist that safety be the top priority.
It is vital to the future of NSCL and MSU that users complete their experiments safely and without incident. Therefore, users must be trained in NSCL safety policies and procedures, and their experimental plans must be reviewed by the appropriate MSU and NSCL safety personnel to assure compliance. If ever in doubt, it is essential that NSCL safety experts be consulted. Employees need to be alert to advise and assist users to safely conduct their experiments and to provide feedback to improve efficiency and safety for the next iteration. Again, only active participation can produce a safe work environment.