The Laboratory Safety Committee has approved policy pertaining to working alone. Review the following documents:
Lab coats should extend to knees. They are available through the University Bookstore, Fisher Scientific, or Grainger.
The CWRU Laboratory Biosafety Manual and Laboratory Safety Manual cannot possibly take into account all procedures that are conducted in laboratories campus wide. For this reason each must keep a Chemical Hygiene Plan in the laboratory.
Labels and warning signs let employees and visitors know a hazard exists. These are important because non-research associates such as maintenance, custodial, security, safety personnel, and department office staff may walk through laboratories during their workday. To be safe all people must be able to identify hazards.
All containers must have a label that identifies contents. Labels must include:
- Full chemical names: Shorthand, abbreviation, and chemical formulas are not acceptable.
- Appropriate warnings: A symbol denoting what the hazard is associated with a particular chemical should be visible.
- Legible and in English: For personnel who speak English as a second language, feel free to create a secondary label in your home language, but the primary label must be legible and in English.
Chemical labels can be generated from the safety data sheets (SDS) navigation by taking the following steps:
- Open GoldFXX to get an appropriate SDS.
- Enter the name of the chemical to label.
- From the list of chemicals, choose one that best matches your chemical.
- An SDS will load.
- Workspaces must have appropriate labels identifying hazards associated with that space. This is easily done by posting Entrance Caution Signs indicating the top hazards present in the workspace. These signs will be produced by EHS and mailed to you. Special hazard labels for equipment (No Food or Drink, Radiation or Biohazard) can be picked up from the EHS office in person, or they can be sent to you through campus mail.