Did you know that health and safety incidents are investigated for the purpose of understanding what happened, why it happened, and implementing corrective measures to prevent similar incidents from reoccurring within an organization? Of course, we investigate incidents. Incident investigations are a fundamental element of an effective health and safety program.
The AIHA Laboratory Health and Safety Committee maintains an open-access website to committee members, containing lessons-learned summary reports describing incidents that have occurred in laboratories.
The laboratory lessons-learned incident reports are accessible to AIHA members and the public via our Committee's website.
The reports are prepared by AIHA Laboratory Health and Safety Committee members based upon experience in their organizations or brought to their attention by colleagues in other laboratories. Each report is a concise summary. The reports address key learnings, the consequence of the incident (e.g., injury, explosion, etc.), a description of the incident, causation, and corrective actions. Many of the reports feature photos of damaged equipment or other images to help convey an understanding of what occurred. The reports are anonymous and do not contain information identifying the organization, location, or personnel associated with the incident.
Categories of Lessons-Learned Incident Reports
- Autoclave incidents
- Biological agent incidents
- Centrifuge incidents
- Chemical incidents - airborne exposure
- Chemical incidents – skin or eye exposure
- Chemical reactivity incidents
- Chemical waste incidents
- Compressed gas incidents
- Cryogen and dry ice incidents
- Electrical incidents
- Fire incidents
- Ionizing radiation incidents
- Non-ionizing radiation incidents
- Pressure hazard incidents
Incident Investigations
All AIHA members are encouraged to submit Lessons-Learned reports to the Lab Health and Safety Committee for posting on the website. The process for submitting reports is simple. Visit our Lessons Learned Reporting Process to find out more. Submit your Report today through our Lessons Learned Reporting Form. Click here to view previously submitted reports.