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RESOURCE ARTICLE

Using [2_TD$IF]bowtie methodology


to support laboratory
hazard identification, risk
management, and incident
analysis
Hazard prevention and control systems for specific laboratory processes must be readily shared between lab
workers, their colleagues, and lab supervisors. In order for these control systems to be effective in a
transferable and sustainable way, effective risk management communication tools must be present. These
tools need to be adaptable and sustainable as research processes change in response to evolving scientific
needs in discovery based laboratories.
In this manuscript, the application of a risk management tool developed in the oil and gas industry known
as a ‘‘bowtie diagram’’ is assessed for application in the laboratory setting. The challenges of identifying
laboratory hazards and managing associated risks as well as early experiences in adapting bowtie diagrams
to the laboratory setting are described. Background information about the bowtie approach is provided and
the technique illustrated using an academic laboratory research scenario. We also outline the role bowtie
diagrams could play in a proactive safety culture program by facilitating hazard communication and
maintaining hazard awareness across a wide spectrum of stakeholders.

[4_TD$IF]INTRODUCTION
By Mary Beth Mulcahy,
Chris Boylan, challenge requires that risk manage-
A series of highly publicized incidents
Samuella Sigmann, ment knowledge must be readily
have highlighted the physical hazards
[3_TD$IF]Ralph Stuart shared between laboratory workers,
of energetic, pyrophoric, and flamma-
their colleagues, and administrators.5,6
ble materials used in academic re-
To be effective, risk assessment and
search laboratories.1–3 These
communication tools must also be
incidents have brought attention to
adaptable to research processes as they
[36_TD$IF]Mary Beth Mulcahy is affiliated with the challenge of safely managing the
change in response to evolving scien-
the U.S. Chemical Safety Board[37_TD$IF], 1750 multiple, rapidly-evolving chemical
tific needs.
Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 910, processes that are characteristic of
Washington, DC [38_TD$IF]20006, USA. the laboratory environment. To keep
pace with this evolution, the Associa- SAFETY MANAGEMENT IN THE
Chris Boylan is affiliated with DNV tion of Public and Land Grant Univer- LABORATORY SETTING
GL, 1400 Ravello Drive, Katy, TX sities (APLU) has suggested that a new
77449, USA. approach to laboratory safety is re- Academic laboratories host many dif-
quired. The APLU suggests that the ferent operations serving a variety of
Samuella Sigmann is affiliated with new approach should address both purposes. Teaching, research and ser-
A.R. Smith Department of Chemistry[39_TD$IF], technical and cultural aspects of this vice laboratory functions are routinely
Appalachian State University[40_TD$IF], 525 issue.4 Several hazard identification, intermixed with personnel moving be-
Rivers Street, Boone, NC 28608, USA. evaluation, and management tools tween them as needs arise. This diver-
have been described in the National sity in laboratory operations is a
Ralph Stuart is affiliated with Environ- Academy’s Prudent Practices in the significant challenge when addressing
mental Health and Safety Keene State Laboratory and the American Chemi- safety management in this setting.
College[41_TD$IF], 229 Main Street, Keene, NH cal Society’s publication Identifying Academic laboratories are quite di-
03435-2502, USA. and Evaluating Hazards in Research verse in scope and activities. For the
Tel.: +1 802 316 9571 Laboratories to address the technical purposes of this paper, ‘‘laboratories’’
(E-mail: rstuartcih@me.com). side, but the cultural aspect of the refer to workplaces that conform to the

14 ß 2017 Division of Chemical Health and Safety of the American Chemical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. 1871-5532
All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jchas.2016.10.003
Occupational Safety and Health  Organizations and individual labo- The bowtie approach described in this
Administration’s (OSHA’s) definition ratories must support safety educa- paper presents an opportunity to
of laboratory ‘‘scale and use’’ defined tion and training by establishing improve institutional understanding
in 29 CRF 1910.1450.7[5_TD$IF] In these labora- clear safety expectations through of laboratory risks by facilitating com-
tories, diverse chemicals are used in policies and procedures and then munication and management of these
multiple processes in quantities that maintaining oversight services that issues among the wide variety of sta-
one person can safely manipulate using identify opportunities for improving keholders in academic laboratory re-
traditional laboratory safety practices. training; search. Stakeholders include
These practices include generic engi-  Appropriate emergency response university presidents, senior adminis-
neering controls such as laboratory ven- and waste management services trators, laboratory faculty and staff,
tilation and chemical storage devices, must be provided for the laboratory environmental health and safety staff,
emergency response equipment, work- work being conducted, and and students.4 Such a diverse group of
er training and oversight, and personal  Continuous monitoring and re- stakeholders means that communica-
protective equipment. It is important to sponse is required at all levels of tion tools may have to be redesigned
remember that many research activities an organization to ensure adequate with different levels of detail to address
in higher education go beyond this def- and effective barriers to prevent or various questions from different
inition by involving significant non- mitigate laboratory incidents. groups. Fortunately, software for
chemical hazards, using amounts of building bowties is available to support
chemicals beyond OSHA’s definition Compounding the challenge of effec- the reuse of information developed for
of laboratory scale, or by using materials tive safety management is the increas- one set of stakeholders, thus commu-
for which insufficient hazard informa- ingly interdisciplinary nature of nication tools may easily be adapted
tion is available. laboratory science. As biologists, physi- for the needs of others.12,13
As noted by both the US Chemical cists and engineers collaborate with To address this daunting list of
Safety Board (CSB) and the National chemists, the complexity of the hazards needs, ongoing communication among
Research Council (NRC), the tradi- presented increases correspondingly. the various stakeholders at an academ-
tional laboratory safety model is being Control strategies for chemical hazards, ic institution is necessary. A graphical
challenged in the modern academic biological agents and physical dangers representation of an institution’s safety
laboratory.1,8 Emerging factors, such can differ significantly and sometimes barriers and controls is likely to be
as the increasing turnover and diversi- compete for attention and resources. significantly more valuable to support
ty of laboratory workers, and the crea- Cross-disciplinary collaboration can re- communication than a collection of
tion of new materials with unknown sult in workers being involved in labo- text-based policies, procedures, and
hazards, have rendered the traditional ratory processes that they may not be checklists – especially when commu-
laboratory safety practices listed above well educated in. For this reason, it is nicating with audiences who do not
inadequate, taken alone, for addres- important to develop a safety commu- have a background in the chemical
sing research hazards. Preventing nication system that clearly highlights sciences or risk assessment.
and mitigating laboratory incidents significant hazards while being easy to
requires effective management of a sys- use, share, and modify as work changes.
tem of barriers that includes physical, It is also important to remember that THE ORIGIN OF BOWTIE DIAGRAMS
operational, and organizational ele- the management of laboratory safety
ments. For example: has the potential to affect people other Using graphical imagery to describe
than those physically conducting the safety systems has been shown to be
 The institution must determine what work. The disruption of neighboring effective in supporting hazard commu-
facilities and management resources activities on many campuses and the nication needs. In 2000 James Reason
are required to support specific re- legal impacts of the 2008 fatal fire at presented a popular model depicting
search proposals (including the abil- the University of California, Los the progression of an incident through
ity to house new chemicals and Angeles (UCLA) made it clear that lab- a series of leaky barriers.14[6_TD$IF] This model,
assess additional hazards they create oratory incidents can have conse- aptly referred to as the ‘‘Swiss cheese
in the laboratory) and determine quences impacting not just the model’’, is presented schematically in
whether such facilities are available principle investigators overseeing the [1_TD$IF]Figure 1. In this model the slices of
when such proposals are funded; work, but neighboring researchers cheese represent ‘‘barriers’’ such as
 Laboratory equipment with appro- and institutions as a whole in terms of those outlined above, while the holes
priate controls must be provided for both productivity and reputation.9,10 represent barrier deficiencies in specif-
the experiments being conducted; Even incidents that result in no injuries ic elements in the system. These defi-
 Safety equipment must be identified, can have serious financial conse- ciencies can allow a threat to penetrate
provided, maintained, and inspected quences, such as recovery costs of over the system and result in an incident. An
to ensure that it will function as $1,000,000.11 increased number of barriers with
designed if it is needed (i.e. emergen- These considerations mean that a smaller and fewer holes will lead to a
cy shut-offs, safety showers, eye larger network of stakeholders should more robust barrier system for prevent-
washes, etc.); be included in developing safety tools. ing incidents.

Journal of Chemical Health & Safety, May/June 2017 15


[(Figure_1)TD$IG]
expertise of the people involved in de-
veloping the diagram. However, the
main goal for developing a bowtie dia-
gram is to aid in communication and
assessment of the fundamentals of the
safety system. The following section
describes the basic process of develop-
ing a bowtie.

 Hazard – As illustrated in [1_TD$IF]Figure 2,


at the top of a bowtie diagram is a
hazard of concern, i.e. something
that has a potential to cause damage
or loss if it is not properly controlled.
Hazards are dangerous intrinsic
properties of the materials or pro-
cess that cannot be eliminated. In a
[1_TD$IF]Figure 1. James Reason’s Swiss Cheese model of accident causation. laboratory setting, these hazards
could be described as ‘‘explosive sol-
id,’’ ‘‘flammable liquid,’’ or ‘‘corro-
A more sophisticated graphical tool assessment aid and communication sive chemical’’ amongst others.
known as the ‘‘Bowtie Diagram’’ also device to depict the number and type Safety Data Sheets that conform to
exists. Bowties garner their name from of barriers (e.g., physical, organization- the Globally Harmonized System
their shape (see [1_TD$IF]Figure 2) and depict al, or operational) that must fail in provide a general approach for iden-
the relationships between hazards and order for an incident to occur. While tifying chemical hazards associated
barriers in a holistic way. The first this model has been used in large-scale with a process.
appearance of bowtie diagrams has industrial settings, we believe the con-  Top Event – The center of the bowtie
been attributed to lectures on Hazard cept can be adapted to the laboratory is the ‘Top Event’ which identifies the
Analysis given at The University of setting to create a useful communica- point in time when control of a spe-
Queensland, Australia in 1979, but tion tool for this challenging manage- cific hazard is lost, and this loss could
the exact origin of bowtie diagrams is ment environment. result in specific forms of harm.
not clear.15[7_TD$IF] Their use was pioneered Because best practices in developing  Threat– The threats listed on the left
largely by the oil and gas industry, and bowtie diagrams are still evolving, side of the bowtie are events that can
now can also be found in the aviation, there are a variety of terms and con- begin the chain of action leading
mining, maritime, chemical and health cepts that need to be defined in order toward the top event.
care industries. to develop a useful bowtie diagram.  Control– Preventive barriers, shown
After hazards have been identified, The precise use of these terms and between a threat and the top event,
the bowtie tool can be used as a risk concepts will vary depending on the are designed to either prevent the
[(Figure_2)TD$IG]

[1_TD$IF]Figure 2. Generic bowtie diagram depicting multiple threats that can escalate to a loss of control of a hazard, and in turn,
progress to a variety of negative consequences.

16 Journal of Chemical Health & Safety, May/June 2017


threat from occurring or stop the unintentional or intentional scale-ups bowtie for the group. The participants
escalation of a threat to the point may be different, once safety critical initially listed the following as poten-
where it becomes involved in a top amounts are exceeded, the barriers to tial threats that could lead to exceeding
event. If a top event occurs, then the prevent or mitigate consequences of a safety critical limits (top event):
mitigation barriers on the right side detonation are the same. Therefore,
of the bow tie are intended to either choosing ‘‘exceed safety critical limit’’  No written procedures
stop or minimize the severity of un- allows the bowtie to cover multiple  No personal protective equipment
wanted consequences. threat scenarios for a single hazard. (PPE) policy
Secondly, choosing ‘‘exceed safety  Untrained laboratory workers
critical limit’’ as opposed to ‘‘explo-  Inadequate supervision
A [8_TD$IF]LABORATORY EXAMPLE sion/detonation’’ puts the risk man-  Lack of communication
agement focus on a point in time
In March 2016, the Division of Chem- when the laboratory workers can still Listing failed or degraded barriers
ical Health & Safety (DCHAS) pre- respond and avoid a detonation alto- (such as those listed in the bullets
sented an interactive symposium at gether. Figure 3 presents the initial above) as threats is a common mistake
the American Chemical Society bowtie diagram with the group-decid- in bowtie development. In response,
(ACS) national meeting. The sympo- ed hazard and top event. the workshop leaders guided the group
sium was held to assess the value of the Several potential consequences toward [10_TD$IF]threats describing an initiating
bowtie methodology in a laboratory were suggested: event that if left unchecked could es-
setting.16 The example used in the ac- calate to a laboratory worker exceed-
tivity was based on the 2011 CSB case  Injury/fatality due to detonation ing a safety critical amount of energetic
study of a laboratory incident at Texas  Property damage due to detonation compound. After this instruction, the
Tech University (TTU).1  Reputation damage due to detona- group identified three key threats:
To construct the bowtie, participants tion
were asked to identify its parts in ac-  Loss of business/productivity/grant  Intentional synthesis scale-up of en-
cordance with widely accepted best funding due to detonation ergetic material
practice in the oil and gas industry in  Regulatory/external review  Inadvertent synthesis scale-up
the following order17,18[9_TD$IF]:  Unauthorized (criminal) activities
Potential consequences extend be-
1. Hazard/Top Event yond the individuals and laboratory [1_TD$IF]Figure 5 shows the developing bow-
2. All Consequences involved and can affect multiple tie diagram which now includes the
3. All Threats departments in the university, as ap- group-identified threats that could
4. Preventive Barriers parent from the above list. Although lead to the top event (exceeding the
5. Mitigation Barriers property damage and regulatory/exter- safety critical limit). Finally, the group
nal review would be valid conse- discussed and listed the various pre-
Initially a variety of possible top quences, due to the time constraints ventive and mitigative barriers. The
events were identified, but the hazard the workshop leaders focused on three resulting bowtie diagram based on this
was generally agreed upon by all parti- consequences listed in the evolving workshop activity is shown in [1_TD$IF]Figure 6.
cipants as ‘‘energetic material’’ Possibil- bowtie diagram shown in [1_TD$IF]Figure 4. The bowtie diagrams in this manu-
ities for the top event discussed were: Identifying potential threats was the script were prepared using BowTieXP
[(Figure_3)TD$IG] most challenging part of constructing a software.13[1_TD$IF]

 Intentional scale-up
 Explosion/detonation
 Exceed safety critical limit (In this
case, a safety critical limit is the min-
imum amount of material that could
cause permanent bodily injury if det-
onated)

The group agreed to use ‘‘exceed


safety critical limit’’ as the top event
for two reasons. First, identifying the
scale-up as ‘‘intentional’’ limits the ap-
plicability of the bowtie. For example,
prior to the 2011 incident, another
TTU student unintentionally scaled-
up the synthesis of another energetic
material.1 While the barriers to prevent [1_TD$IF]Figure 3. Initial bowtie diagram showing hazard and top event.

Journal of Chemical Health & Safety, May/June 2017 17


[(Figure_4)TD$IG]
response’’ as a barrier. To ensure this
barrier functions, a laboratory worker
needs training to know where the alarm
is located, how to activate it, and how to
respond once it is activated. Further-
more, it is imperative the alarm is prop-
erly maintained so that it will function
when activated. Ultimately, the alarm
and associated training and mainte-
nance actually represent a single barrier
system, without which there is no as-
surance the barrier will function at all.
When an ‘‘alarm’’ is listed as a barrier, it
should be with the understanding that
there is safety management system sup-
porting it that includes training and
[1_TD$IF]Figure 4. The evolving bowtie diagram showing group suggested consequences. maintenance. Without this, there are
[(Figure_5)TD$IG] ‘‘holes’’ in the barrier analogous to the
Swiss cheese model.14
Management systems are the formal
processes where management (e.g.,
principal investigator, department
chair, etc.) commits to policies or pro-
cedures that support safety, implements
the policies and procedures, monitors
their performance, and implements ap-
propriate corrective actions when nec-
essary.19 Monitoring performance and
implementing corrective actions should
be a continual process which results in
improving the management of risks and
safety throughout the lifetime of a re-
search program. This is true whether
the barrier is physical in nature like
the alarm example (technical), or an
[1_TD$IF]Figure 5. Bowtie diagram showing the threats agreed upon after group leader organizational policy (cultural). Ulti-
guidance. mately, a piece of paper is not a barrier
– risk assessment and management is
BOWTIE [1_TD$IF]DEVELOPMENT barriers and generate a false sense of an active process. It is the actual work
PRECAUTIONS safety since more barriers may be conducted under the policy or proce-
expected to reduce associated risks. dure that creates the barrier. If a policy
A potential pitfall of the bowtie For example, the bowtie in [1_TD$IF]Figure 6 lists or procedure is not consistently moni-
approach is that users over-identify
[(Figure_6)TD$IG] ‘‘activating emergency alarms and tored and reinforced, the operational

[1_TD$IF]Figure 6. Bowtie diagram for the detonation of energetic material in a laboratory setting.

18 Journal of Chemical Health & Safety, May/June 2017


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 As the bowtie in [1_TD$IF]Figure 6 indicates, 29CFR1910.1450(b). https://www.osha.
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20 Journal of Chemical Health & Safety, May/June 2017

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