Emergencies, accidents and incidents

In case of emergencies such as danger for a person, property or the environment, always call 112 to come in contact with the ambulance service, police, rescue services/fire services, poisons information centre, or on-call doctor.

Call 112, tell them calmly and clearly:

• who you are and where you are ringing from
• what has happened
• where it has happened
• if human life is in danger or someone is seriously injured

Do not hang up the call until instructed to do so by the operator. Follow the instructions given to you by the operator.

Notify other people in your surrounding of the emergency, enlist the aid of colleagues or others.

While you wait for help to arrive:

• extinguish the fire if possible or close the doors
• keep an eye on the well-being of the injured, don't leave them alone, provide caring support
• investigate whether there are more injured, affected people

Keep your own safety in mind. Do not expose yourself to unnecessary risks.

Meet emergency vehicles and personnel, show the way to the accident site.

In a stressful situation it may be difficult to explain the way to an individual lab. A good preventive measure is to post a sign on each lab door with directions on how to find it, for example Linköping University, Valla, Building B, Entrance 23, ground floor, Corridor B on the left, Room B2:XXX

In the event of a fire, act according to:

Rescue - those who are in immediate danger, help each other! Do not expose yourself to unnecessary risks.

Warn others - alert people in the surroundings about the fire or that the evacuation alarm is sounding. Encourage those around you to evacuate. Keep in mind that people wearing headphones may have difficulty hearing the evacuation alarm. If the fire and evacuation alarm has not started, or if evacuation must take place for another reason, press the alarm buttons located in the building.

Raise the alarm - notify the emergency services by calling 112 and tell the operator the location of the fire. Even if the fire alarm has been triggered*!

Extinguish - the fire if possible

Close doors - to prevent the spread of smoke and fire

Evacuate - according to the evacuation procedure.

At LiU, anyone may act as an evacuation leader by putting on the evacuation jacket available in the premises and following the instructions.

Evacuate the building via the nearest smoke-free evacuation route and go to the assembly point.

Lifts must not be used for evacuation.

If you have information about what has happened in the building, e.g. that people are still there or where there is a fire, it is important that you report this directly to the evacuation leader, the campus security services or directly to the emergency services.

Never return into the building until the emergency services, the campus security services or the evacuation leader has given the all-clear.

* By calling 112 and informing them of the location of the fire, the emergency services will know that it is not an automatic alarm and act accordingly.

Handling of gas at the laboratory in case of fire or accident. If possible, turn off the gas in the lab or at an emergency valve.

If there is risk of personal injury, immediately evacuate the building and move all personnel to a secure zone, close all doors and contact 112.

Tell the rescue services about the type of gas concerned i.e. any hazardous characteristics plus which system is involved (central gas system or gas tubes). Also state the number of gas tubes at the location and where the shut off valves are.

When using combustible or explosive gas, it is essential that the risk assessment describes for example what would happen during a power cut or ventilation stop. Are there sources of possible ignition? What would happen when power came back on as concerns sources of ignition?

It is vital for all users to be familiar with how and where to turn off the gas in case of an emergency.

If the emission or spill is too big to clean up by the labb staff or if it may pose a risk to the environment or the surroundings, then the alarm must be raised.

Decontamination of smaller-scale emission or spill

In case of a smaller-scale spill or emission - use personal protective equipment and technical assistance as necessary to clean up in a safe way, consult the risk assessment.

• Solid substances are placed in buckets or plastic sacks.
• Fluid spill is absorbed using absorption material (ex vermiculite) and placed in buckets or plastic sacks.
• Prevent fluid spill from reaching the drain or stormwater (dagvatten) if the spill occured outside.
• Then dry the area with paper dampened with soap solution (unless other cleaning method is stated in the risk assessment or safety data sheet).
• Waste is processed in accordance with regulations for management of chemical waste i.e. if what was spilled is considered to be hazardous waste, all absorption material, drying paper etc. must also be regarded as hazardous waste.

Any questions? Contact the official responsible for hazardous waste in each organisation, or Coordinator laboratory safety at LiU.

Also inform the environmental coordinator (miljösamordnaren) at the workplace, and follow beyond ordinary routines for accidents and incident reporting.

If larger spill/emission - raise the alarm

In case of a larger spill/emission that it is not possible to clean up yourself, or if it can be assumed to pose a threat to the environment or surroundings, the alarm must be raised.

Routines for LiU - campus Valla, Norrköping

1. In an emergency situation, contact emergency services by calling 112.
2. If not an emergecy, but with risk of damage to enivronment, immediatetely contact:
   • Linköping: The Council Environmental Office Linköping ("Miljökontoret") +46(0)13 20 60 00.
   • Norrköping: The Council Environmental Office Norrköping +46(0)11 15 00 00
3. If not an emergecy, but with risk of damage due to larger spill to drain or stormwater ('dagvatten'), immediatetely contact:
   • Linköping: Tekniska verken, office hours to switchboard +46 13 20 80 00 or operations driftcentralen +46 13 20 80 20.
     If larger spills to drain outside office hours contact Nykvarnsverket +46 13-20 83 69.
   • Norrköping: contact Norrköpings vatten (NODRA) , +46 11-15 15 50
4. Notify Environment and security office at LiU afterwards by sending an e-mail to miljo@liu.se.

If the situation is not considered to be an emergency, but damage to facility, building could occur, contact property owner:

• Akademiska Hus +46 10-557 24 00
• För Kopparhammaren 2 och 7: Klövern +46 11 - 14 17 15

Be prepared to answer questions such as:

• When and where did the spill/emission occur?
• What was spilled/emitted (substances, concentration, properties)?
• How much was spilled/emitted? (estimate the amount if not known)
• How may the spill/emission leave the property (via ventilation, storm or waste water pipes, on the ground, in a ditch)?
• Provide a contact person with knowledge of the spill/emission/incident (name, phone, email).

Routines for Region Östergötland and campus US

1. Contact Operations unit ("driftenheten") who in turn contacts the Council Environmental Office and the purification plant in the relevant municipality. Operations Unit can be reached by customer support and service (fd FIXA)
   • phone: +46 10-10 36 000 (or via the County Council switchboard at +46(0)101030000)
2. Notify Environment and security office at LiU afterwards by sending an e-mail to miljo@liu.se.

Be prepared to answer questions such as:

• When and where did the spill/emission occur?
• What was spilled/emitted (substances, concentration, properties)?
• How much was spilled/emitted? (estimate the amount if not known)
• How may the spill/emission leave the property (via ventilation, storm or waste water pipes, on the ground, in a ditch)?
• Provide a contact person with knowledge of the spill/emission/incident (name, phone, email).

Report disruption/interruption/deviation

Report disruption/interruption/deviation (for example a larger spill) to Linköping Municipality by using Rapport – Anmälan om driftstörning, avvikelser (in Swedish) , or for Norrköping Municipality, at Norrköpings kommuns webbsida om driftstörning (in Swedish).

In case of a needlestick, cut or splash injury that involves contact with human blood/tissue or infectious agent(s) it is important to clean the wound and contact Medical Care according to the routine found on the Biosafety page.

The objective of long-term working environment activities is to prevent ill health and accidents. One method of working in a preventative fashion is to use information about similar incidents (that are near misses or accidents) that occur at the workplace. Incident reporting is one of several methods used in this work to obtain an overview of the risks.

Reporting

• All incidents, accidents (occupational injuries) and deviations are to be reported as soon as possible to the employer, such that appropriate measures can be taken to prevent repetition.
• Incidents and less serious deviations are reported to your immediate mangager and investigated locally at LiU according to LiU routines.
• Serious incidents, for example emissions of chemicals or gases, fire etc without injuries are to be reported immediately to the Swedish work environment authority. This also includes if someone has sustained a puncture or incision injury from a needle or similar object, where it is known or strongly suspected that the patient's or the other person's blood is infected. Or, if someone has come into unprotected contact with material, a patient, or a person where it is known or suspected that there is a serious infection, such as Hepatitis A-E, tuberculosis, HIV.
• Accidents (injuries) are to be reported immediately to the Swedish work environment authority. The department management (head of the department/equvialent and HR partner) must participate in the reporting process.
• More information and forms for LiU are available under Guidance and links.
• More information and forms for Region Östergötland are available at intranet/corresponding site.

Reporting och additional registration must be carried out for certain incidents

If an incident or accident leads to an employee or student being exposed to a high level of a carcinogenic or mutagenic product, this must be recorded in a special exposure register. More information about this registration and about carcinogenic or mutagenic products is available on the ‘Management of chemicals’ pages on CMR products.

Follow-up

Incidents and accidents are followed up by the Environment and Safety Office and the HR unit to assess if it is possible to assist the organization in preventing further similar incidents.