EH&S celebrated the nomination of our Laboratory Safety team for a Distinguished Staff Award at a reception on February 27, 2018. They were honored to be among 16 teams and 67 individuals across the University nominated for this award.
Injuries have occurred at the UW while personnel were using ladders on the job. These incidents show that using ladders can be dangerous if not used properly. Before you use a ladder at work or at home, make sure you take the necessary safety precautions.
What went wrong in the recent UW incidents?
A person fell off a ladder when overreaching.
Someone could not find a step ladder for a job, and instead used an orchard ladder (tripod type ladder), and fell to the ground when it tipped over.
During 2017's National Biosafety Month, you are encouraged to focus attention on biosafety policies, practices and procedures. Investigators and laboratory managers should raise biosafety awareness, discuss the importance of safety, and seek input on ways to strengthen biosafety practices and procedures in their labs. This year, EH&S is focusing on sharps safety in research and exposure response.
EH&S has published a new guidance sheet focused on working safely with dry ice. This useful resource reviews the hazards and appropriate precautions that should be used with dry ice, commonly used for the shipment of specimens and during power outages.
The Employee Health Center provides scheduled preventive health care for UW employees who are at higher risk for occupational exposures to potentially hazardous materials. We provide physical exams, screenings, vaccinations and medical surveillance for personnel working in high risk areas, such as research labs, animal care centers, clinical settings and the UW Police Department.
We often encounter cardboard when we visit biological labs. Unless you are using cardboard as part of your experiment, it doesn’t belong in a biological lab.
Cardboard and other porous materials cannot be decontaminated with a surface spray in the event of a splash, spatter or spill of biohazardous material. In the event of contamination, these items must be autoclaved.
Spring is the perfect time to organize, clean, and remove unnecessary and potentially hazardous clutter, such as cardboard.
The Laboratory Safety and Compliance training course is now “required initial training” for all Principal Investigators, lab managers, lab chemical hygiene officers, and people working in a supervisory role in research and teaching laboratories. The class provides essential information on regulatory, policy, and permit requirements, and addresses hazards and risk assessment to ensure lab safety and compliance.
EH&S has developed a new online Hydrofluoric Acid Safety Training course to help those who work with or may be exposed to hydrofluoric acid (HF) in the workplace. HF exposures can lead to some serious injuries or fatalities.
Why should labs have a standard operating procedure (SOP) for a chemical when the manufacturer safety data sheet (SDS) is available?
Both documents are “required” in the lab but offer different types of important information about a chemical. SDSs can be a good source of information when assessing risks associated with the storage, use, and transport of a chemical or product, whereas an SOP gives the researcher detailed lab-specific information for handling of a chemical at every stage of its presence in the lab.
