Earthquake proof labs

Earthquakes are very common in Japan. In fact, they get 1,500 per year!

This is something we thought about in terms of our own apartment. We worked on alleviating earthquake damage in our apartment by not getting high pieces of furniture (shelves and such) that could fall on you. Some of the taller organizers we have are made from plastic and are held in place by tension rods, so they shouldn't fall over, and if they did they would not cause a lot of damage.

If there ever is a strong earthquake that we feel while we are home, we know where we need to go to evacuate. In our case, it is the high school sport's field at the end of our street. So far we have not dealt with any earthquakes, at least none that we felt, here in Nagoya.

However, what would we do if an earthquake hits at work? Tori to date has not had any earthquake drill practices, but more than likely she would probably follow the lead of her supervisor to take the students to the closest evacuation spot. Miklos, on the other hand, works in a chemistry lab with a lot of hazardous chemicals and heavy equipment and machinery. Recently, ITBM held an earthquake drill, which this post will outline along with some standard safety precautions that lab is currently taking.

Making a chemistry lab earthquake proof is not particularly easy: Lots of fragile glassware, hazardous chemicals, etc. The first obvious

difference, from a chemistry lab in Japan and elsewhere around the world, is that chemicals are not sitting on shelves in Japan. Everything is in a closet, most of which have sliding doors and pull out drawers that are close to the ground. This is a deliberate safety precaution to prevent chemicals and glassware from falling and shattering on the ground. Bigger pieces of equipment are either strapped down, or fixated with tension rods (see pictures).

For staff's personal safety, a hard hat is stored under everyone's desk. In case of an earthquake, staff has to take cover under the desk, put on the hard hat and then evacuate once the shaking stopped. Last Additionally, staff has a little card that would be handed to evacuation personal, so they can see who is accounted for. Staff would also get a follow-up email where they would indicate if they are safe and injured Tuesday all staff took part in an earthquake drill (you can see more pictures below). Altogether, it was a pretty intense drill!