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Safety Tips for Safely Transporting Hazardous and Non-Hazardous Items through Self-Closing Doors

Although these safety tips are being published to assist faculty and employees working in laboratories, they can be applied to any situation where a person is transporting items through a self-closing door.  Self-closing doors are being installed in all of our new buildings, including Medical School Expansion and Biomedical Research Expansion Facility.

Door Closing Mechanism

BENEFITS

Self-closing doors (as seen in the picture above), have multiple benefits to the building and occupants.  Closed doors in our laboratory areas provide the following improvements:

• Enhances safety and security for occupants;
• Limits migration of smoke or other hazardous substances in the event of an actual fire or laboratory incident;
• Separates hazardous areas from the emergency egress path, in the event of a fire;
• Reduces energy costs, as the upgraded HVAC system in MSB is designed to operate with the lab doors closed;
• UTHSC-H will comply with the fire and life safety code.

SAFETY TIPS

The following suggestions will make it easier for you to transport items through the MSB laboratory doors, or any other self-closing door on campus.

• Place hazardous items (chemical, biological, radiological) into secondary containment to reduce the risk of spilling the material in a public area.
• Use a cart or dolly when transporting multiple and/or heavy items to avoid ergonomic-related injuries.
• Temporarily prop open the door when carrying items that require two hands, or when pushing a cart (reduces risk of injury and damaging door).
• Temporarily prop open the door when moving objects that require more than one person.
• Always open the door slowly when entering or exiting a room, to avoid hitting someone on the other side.
• It is particularly important to ensure the door is closed when the laboratory is not occupied.
• Report problems with the operation of the self-closing mechanism to FIXIT (i.e. door closes to hard or will not close completely).