Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) recently updated their Job Safety and Health Law poster; a required workplace poster that informs personnel of their rights and responsibilities to a safe and healthy workplace. The updated poster reflects rule changes that increase worker protection from discrimination when filing a complaint.
EH&S has received reports of coyote sightings on the Seattle campus. Coyotes have been present at our campus locations and vicinity for years and they are an important part of our ecosystem.
Read the Coyotes on UW Campuses focus sheet for information on living and working around urban coyotes, preventing human-animal conflict, and reporting coyote activity our campuses.
Does your laboratory have volatile organic chemicals that produce strong, pungent odors even when the cap and bottle are intact? Controlling these smells, often found in chemical storage areas, will help reduce your risk of exposure.
Volatile organic chemicals can escape their containers, which presents an exposure risk to everyone in the lab. Restricting the ability for the chemical to disperse into the air can lower that risk.
During National Biosafety Month in October, EH&S is encouraging labs working with biohazards to identify hazards that could be substituted with a safer alternative to reduce the potential for harm while performing the same function.
Examples of safer alternatives include:
EH&S’s Laboratory Safety Program now offers an interactive Chemical Hygiene Officer (CHO) Hands-On Training course for all CHOs at the UW.
If your research involves the use of centrifuges, ovens/furnaces, vacuum pumps, or other laboratory equipment, the new Laboratory Equipment Maintenance webpage provides resources that can help you mitigate the hazards associated with commonly used lab equipment.
Updated July 18. 2022
Keep in mind the facemask required for working in a lab is different than the facemask you may wear outside the lab.
University units with sharps waste and human pathological waste should take note of recent changes to the University’s biohazardous waste streams.
The U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA), along with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state and local partners, are investigating a multistate outbreak of Salmonella infections linked to certain Jif peanut butter products produced at the J.M. Smucker Company facility in Lexington, Kentucky.
