At one of my previous jobs I did genetic research at a teaching hospital. The door to our lab floor was down a few steps from the main hospital building. There was a small landing with the freight elevator and the closed door leading to our area.
People in the cath lab in the adjacent main building thought nothing of leaving broken furniture, opened boxes and bags of garbage in that little hallway. It usually wasn't in the way, but nobody wants to walk around a trash pile to get into work. I would mention it to our safety officer, since it was technically a fire hazard, and they would send someone from housekeeping to haul the stuff away. But since they never bothered "educating" the cath lab staff, they'd just keep trashing our entry way. Apparently they brought in a lot of money (whereas research didn't) and bothering them about such trivial matters was out of the question.
The last straw came when they started dumping *used* cardiac catheters on the floor. I called the safety officer again and told her what was on the floor and then I very innocently asked her where on OSHA's web site they listed the HIV and hepatitis risk from those things. I was thinking of sending an email to ask them, you see, but figured it would be faster to call her first to see if she happened to know the answer.
The response was not only quick, it was permanent. The cath lab was very tidy after that.
People in the cath lab in the adjacent main building thought nothing of leaving broken furniture, opened boxes and bags of garbage in that little hallway. It usually wasn't in the way, but nobody wants to walk around a trash pile to get into work. I would mention it to our safety officer, since it was technically a fire hazard, and they would send someone from housekeeping to haul the stuff away. But since they never bothered "educating" the cath lab staff, they'd just keep trashing our entry way. Apparently they brought in a lot of money (whereas research didn't) and bothering them about such trivial matters was out of the question.
The last straw came when they started dumping *used* cardiac catheters on the floor. I called the safety officer again and told her what was on the floor and then I very innocently asked her where on OSHA's web site they listed the HIV and hepatitis risk from those things. I was thinking of sending an email to ask them, you see, but figured it would be faster to call her first to see if she happened to know the answer.

The response was not only quick, it was permanent. The cath lab was very tidy after that.
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