Return to flip book view
CHESAPEAKE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY | SOLOMONS, MDMARCH 2021ISSUE 55Lab LinesDIRECTOR’S VIEW1IN THIS ISSUE:DIRECTOR’S VIEWDEVELOPMENT/PUBLICATIONS2OUTREACH 34I saw my rst osprey over the weekend wheeling over the Patuxent. Flowers are beginning to poke their heads through the ground. The facilities team have been spreading mulch making the campus look beautiful. All point to spring. Another hopeful sign is that perhaps 80% of the CBL community have one or both of their vaccinations and we are beginning to be able to re-open buildings to allow more access to a wider number of members of the community. I am hopeful that we will be able to increase building capacities signicantly by the second half of April so that there will be fewer and fewer constraints on research activities.But, as we re-engage with each other, can I ask that we all remember that we should continue to wear masks in all public spaces on campus, and maintain social distancing as much as possible. There is still a mandate to undergo monthly covid testing until you are two weeks past your nal vaccination. I am hopeful that for most of the community, this will mean that April will be the last month a health care worker tickles my brain from the inside.I want to thank everyone for the positive spirit you have shown over the last year. It has greatly helped. In particular, I want to thank the facilities team who have stepped away from their full time responsibilities to keep the buildings clean, and the business oce and admin sta who have been working from home throughout much of this pandemic.There is light at the end of the tunnel – and I don’t think it is an oncoming train.SAFETY CORNER/ IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Safety Corner: Cheryl ClarkEYE SAFETYSince March is Workplace Eye Wellness month, this month’s tip is eye protection in the laboratory. According to National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, there are more than 2000 eye injuries in the workplace every day.(https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/eye/default.html) It is believed that 90% of these could have been avoided. Many of these injuries were due to the fact that individuals were not wearing eye protection or were not using the right kind of eye protection. Our eyes are our window to the world and the loss or impairment of one or both of our eyes would decrease our quality of life. Therefore, it should be common sense to take measures to protect them from harm, but we do not always do this. While most of us are quick to put our sunglasses on when we go outside to protect ourselves from the sun, we are not so quick about wearing eye protection in the laboratory. We need to develop the habit of putting on the appropriate eye protection in the lab, just as we have developed the habit of putting on sunglasses when we go outside. It needs to become second nature. The American National Standards Institute’s standard for occupational and educational eye and face protection is ANSI Z87.1. It has been adopted by OSHA and been made part of the federal requirements, making it the employers responsibility to provide the appropriate protection equipment for workplace hazards. It is important to wear the correct eye protection. Be sure to check the labels and/or Safety Data Sheets (Section 8) of the chemical you are using. If you are engaging in an activity where there is chance of an impact injury, be sure you have the correct safety glasses. (It is also important that all chemicals be stored below eye level). Eye protection which complies with the standard are labelled ANSI Z87.1 or just Z87.1.There are three categories of eye protection – glasses, goggles and face shields. Safety glasses are used mostly to protect from impact. Your prescription glasses are not a substitute for safety glasses. Goggles are used for chemical protection and should t snugly around the eyes, so no dust or chemical can get through. There are two kinds, vented and indirect vented. If you are dealing with large quantities of chemicals, you should be using indirect vented. The vented goggles are the type you see mostly in high school and undergraduate laboratories. These are more for impact and are not very eective to protect your eyes from a splash. The chemical can get through the openings in the sides. Face shields must be used in conjunction with goggles or glasses to protect the face and throat from impact injuries. OSHA now allows for contact lenses in the laboratory as long as you are wearing safety glasses or goggles. I personally do not recommend it. There is the risk for chemical vapors to get behind the lenses and irritate the eye. Know where your eyewash station is located. Don’t wait for an injury to occur to nd it. If you get something in your eye, get to the station and ush eyes for 15 minutes. Have someone call 911 for you, if necessary. I have included a link for which contains a selection chart for eye protection. When you open the link, click on the hazard and it will take you to the selection page. https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/eyeandface/ppe/selection.htmlIn Case You Missed It! Lauren Rodriguez and Amber Fandel gave a talk last month on Chesapeake DolphinWatch to more than 150 of the National History Society of Maryland’s members ranging in age from 7-70+.Carys Mitchelmore was an invited speaker at the ‘My Blue CosmET’IC, Beauty & Sea’ conference in France (March 10-12th). She gave a virtual talk on “UV lters and Coral Reefs: State of the Science, Data Gaps and Next Steps’ which highlights the ndings and recommendations from her recently published review paper on this topic (in Environmental Chemistry & Toxicology, Feb 2021). Carys Mitchelmore was also an invited participant at the workshop on “Modernizing Chemical Responses to Oil Spills: Ecological Eects Research Forum (CROSERF) Aquatic Toxicity Testing Protocols, held virtually, March 2nd, 2021.
OutreachScience for Citizens Seminar SeriesJoin UMCES Chesapeake Biological Laboratory as we explore the health of the Chesapeake Bay in our upcoming public webinar series! Members of the public, CBL, and UMCES are invited to attend! Registration is required at: https://www.usmf.org/scienceforcitizens/ Tuesday, April 6th at 7:00pmDepleting the Immense Protein Factory that was Chesapeake BayPresented by Dr. Victor KennedyIn 1940, H.L. Mencken referred to Chesapeake Bay as “the immense protein factory.” In the late 1800s, its oyster and shad sheries led the world in harvests and economic value. Waterfowl rafts covered miles of its winter surface. Sturgeon and terrapins were everywhere. Dr. Vic Kennedy, author of Shifting Baselines in the Chesapeake Bay, will use eyewitness reports by early colonists, newspaper articles, and management reports from the 1800s to describe a cornucopia that we can now only imagine.Tuesday, April 13th at 7:00pmWhat’s in Our Water? - A Chemical Perspective of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly Presented by Dr. Michael GonsiorHave you ever wondered what’s in your drinking water? We use chemicals in our daily lives, but which ones might end up in a local stream or the Chesapeake Bay? How ecient can wastewater treatment be, and what chemicals are made in the process? Water is the foundation of life, but it carries a staggering diversity of chemicals that are naturally derived and manufactured by humans, both intentionally and made by accident. In this seminar, Dr. Michael Gonsior will give an overview of the invisible chemical world that denes our local waters as he answers these important questions.Tuesday, April 20th at 7:00pmStream Restoration: Is it Helping Our Streams and the Chesapeake Bay?Presented by Dr. Solange FilosoHealthy streams are dynamic, diverse ecosystems that provide society with many benets. Since many streams in the Chesapeake Bay watershed are severely degraded, stream restoration is increasingly used to improve their water quality. Yet, the eectiveness of projects implemented is still questionable, and recovery is a slow, complex task. Dr. Solange Filoso has monitored restored streams in Maryland for over a decade. In this seminar, she will share her assessment of restoration eectiveness, and discuss the importance of monitoring data to policy and management decisions in the region.Tuesday, March 30th at 7:00pmThe US Ocean Decade - Messages for the Chesapeake Bay and CBLPresented by Dr. Tom MillerThis year marks the start of the UN Decade for Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. This exciting program seeks to conduct the science we need for the oceans we want. Involvement of government, academic and citizen scientists is strongly encouraged - and we are seeing involvement of groups who have not been traditionally represented in these discussions. This talk will review initiatives the US is considering as its contributions and evaluate whether we are doing the science we need for the Chesapeake Bay we want.Tuesday, April 27th at 7:00pmChanging Weather, Changing Farms, Opportunities to Reduce Chesapeake HarmPresented by Dr. Lisa WaingerFuture Chesapeake Bay health will depend on the combined inuence of environmental changes and peoples’ responses to those changes. Dr. Lisa Wainger will describe research into these combined eects that found that adaptations that farmers are already making to improve crop growth under changing weather are likely to prevent some harm to Chesapeake Bay water quality. This benecial eect could be enhanced by looking for additional opportunities to change the timing of nutrients to water bodies. Registration is required at: https://www.usmf.org/scienceforcitizens/ Science for Citizens is sponsored by: Visitor CenterOut of an abundance of concern related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory Visitor Center will remain closed.
www.umces.edu/cbl | 410-326-4281P.O. Box 38 | 146 Williams Street | Solomons, MD 20688-0038Publications Aquino, G.A.G., Cabaitan, P.C. & Secor, D.H. 2021. Locomotor activity and growth response of glass eel Anguilla marmorata exposed to dierent salinity levels. Fisheries Science: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12562-021-01493-xDevelopment Activity: Jeane WhartonUnder the circumstances created by the pandemic, many donors supported health-related nonprots and organizations serving vulnerable populations. In a recent survey by Fidelity Charitable, 54 percent of donors plan to maintain their giving levels and 43 percent of all donors surveyed said they’d continue to donate to the organizations to which they’d donated previously. Donations to CBL seemed to echo the Fidelity survey ndings, as many donors maintained or increased their giving levels. The number of donors who give $1,000 or more has tripled since 2017, and three gifts from individual donors to CBL have been more than $20,000 each in the past 18 months.This year Wharton and other UMCES development sta meet frequently by phone and Zoom with Vice President for Strategic Initiatives Stuart Clarke. Development sta has had extensive online training with the Ellucian Advance database, the large database hosted by the University System of Maryland Foundation. She stays in contact with CBL leadership and donors/prospective donors through emails, texts and phone calls. On the phone or by email, donors praise the Science for Citizens presentations now available on Zoom. The average attendance has been higher than the in-person event, with attendees from all over the US and a few global attendees. Several donations were made each Tuesday following the presentations or following the Wednesday morning virtual “Coee Break with a CBL Scientist.” The Science for Citizens ve-week fall edition begins March 30 at 7:00 p.m.Women of the World CelebrationThe 18th Annual Women of the World Celebration & Awards – Women Breaking Barriers event will be held virtually on Saturday, April 17, at 9:45 am. The keynote speaker will be Yun Jung Yang, the Chair of the Maryland Commission for Women. Several leading women of Calvert County (including our own Stacy Hutchinson) will be honored at this event. If you are interested in attending, please register by April 16th at: https://calvertlibrary.libnet.info/event/4880294HR UpdateHR procedures are still important. If you have a student or employee departing, HR (Stacy) NEEDS TO KNOW! Although a student/employee can maintain their email account following their time on campus, we do need to end their appointment (whether it is paid or non-paid) as well as remove network credentials – otherwise we are non-compliant with university security procedures. Please notify HR when anyone is leaving us or has completed their studies.Cleaning & DisinfectingWe have plenty of supplies!! Clorox health grade wipes, bottled alcohol, masks (including N95), gloves, face shields and hand sanitizer are all readily available. If your area is in need of cleaning or PPE items, send Stacy an email – you’ll have it the next day.