Hunter College mandates that all biomedical and chemical research programs and all locations where chemicals and their waste are handled, stored or managed to follow basic safety Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and to register the areas above with the office of Environmental Health and safety and, if necessary, to be certified by the corresponding committees to ensure compliance with safety practices and governmental mandates regarding environmental (EPA), occupational (OSHA) mandates and grant institution rules. The person overseeing any of the programs or facilities above must file this form with EHS by January 31, 2004. This form is available online at www.hunter.cuny.edu/ehs. You can mail this form to EHS at Room E-1211/E-1211A or e-mail it to Ricardo Franco at ricardo.franco@hunter.cuny.edu or Abner Felix at abner.felix@hunter.cuny.edu. For assistance with this form or any of the requirements in it, call EHS at (212) 772-4462.

Room Number:

Person in Charge of Room:

After Hours Emergency Phone No.:

Name of Principal Investigator (P.I):

E-Mail address of P.I:

Briefly describe the work that you conduct in your lab, stock room, shop, work area, etc:

PRUDENT LABORATORY, STOCKROOM, PREP ROOMS AND SHOP AND STUDIO PRACTICES

Click what is applicable

1. Hunter College has a set of basic safety procedures for areas where biomedical work or chemicals are used (Safety Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Are those procedures adequate for the level of work that you conduct? Or do you need an SOP specific for your work (see next three items).

2. Do you conduct rDNA research? If so, you need an SOP specific for your work lab and may need to register your rDNA research with EHS and possibly NIH. Do you have an rDNA SOP? Please send a copy to E-1702.

3. Do you work with or stone any CDC or APHIS Select Agent (SA) or Toxin. If so, you must disclose those agents to the College’s EHS office so that we can register your SA/toxins with the CDC and develop a lab safety plan. Please send a list of those agents/toxins to E-1702.

4. Do you work with Nat’l. Inst. for Research on Cancer Group 1, carcinogenic to Humans, or IARC Probably Carcinogenic to Humans? If so, EHS needs an SOP specific for your work. Please send a copy to E-1702.

5. Do you keep a relatively current inventory (4-5 months) of the chemicals for each of lab, shop, stockroom, and or work area(s)? It is required by FDNY and EPA. Send a copy to E-1702.

6.Do you have any EPA-EPCRA Extremely Hazardous Substances in your chemical inventory? If so, mark them with an asterisk in the inventory list you are sending us so that we can keep records of their locations and quantities. We can do that for you as well when we get your inventory. It is an EPA, FDNY, NYC and NYS requirement

7.EPA is vigilant about speculative accumulation of chemicals: storage of chemicals that you no longer use, or remain stored for more than 3-years and you have no anticipated use for them, expired chemicals, and chemicals in containers that appear deteriorated, abandoned, forming crystals, etc.? Do you have speculative accumulations of chemicals? If so they must be treated as chemical waste and discarded accordingly.

8.Hunter College has a set of basic safety procedures for laboratory work (Laboratory Standard Operating Procedures or SOPs.) Are those procedures adequate for the level of work that you conduct? Or do you need an SOP specific for your work (see next three items).

9.Have any employee in your area reported overexposure symptoms to the chemicals they work with? Please explain.

10. Do you separate your stored chemicals to ensure that chemical reactions do not occur? It’s an NYFD and EPA mandate.

11.Do you keep your corridors free of chemical containers, bench tops free of unnecessary chemicals and equipment, and follow good housekeeping practices to maximize safety in your lab?

12.Do you train your lab employees on general safety hazards and specific risks associated with your work?

13.Do you require your lab employees and lab students (if applicable) to wear personal protective equipment appropriate for the level of safety needed in your area?

14.Do you inform your students and personnel in your lab/shop/studio or work area of the location and type of fire extinguishers, the two closest emergency exits and the location and use of the closest eye wash station and safety shower?

15. Do you and your personnel know of the closest spill kit supplies?

16. Do you have procedures to minimize the purchase and use of chemicals and to reduce the volume of HW in you lab? EPA required. Please describe it.

17. If you are in control of a chemical laboratory, stockroom, prep room or other location where chemicals are stored, do you have a NYFD Certificate of Fitness for chemicals? What if the number and expiration date?

IONIZING RADIATION AND LASERS

18.Are you certified by the Radiation Safety Committee to conduct research with radioactives? No P.I. is allowed to work with radionuclides unless you register your program with EHS’ Radiation Safety Unit.

19.Is everyone working with radionuclides trained in Radiation Safety

20. Are you and your lab personnel working or managing the radioactives being monitored for exposure?

21. Is your radioactive work performed in a “controlled area” and shielded, if needed, to protect employees?

22.Are your radioactive materials and waste managed and under the control of person assigned as the radiation manager for your work area/lab?

23.Are your radioactive materials and waste properly labeled and documented?

24. Is your radioactive waste properly packaged, stored and removed from the lab ASAP?

25. If you work with lasers, have you trained your employees in the proper use and safety hazards associated with them?

26. Are your lab personnel working with lasers provided with personal protective equipment and trained to use them and how to minimize exposure to lasers?

27.Is your laser equipment checked periodically for proper alignment of the beam?

28. Do you work with X-Ray machines, and if provided with equipment to minimize exposure to radiation?

29. Do you work with equipment that produces strong magnetic fields?

MANAGEMENT OF REGULATED WASTES: CHEMICAL, BIOMEDICAL, RADIOACTIVE, UNIVERSAL WASTES

30.If you produce chemical waste, do you have a designated area in your lab called a ”Hazardous Waste Accumulation Area” which is under the supervision of a Laboratory Waste Manager? What is the name of that person?

31.Is your Waste Manager trained or has knowledge to make the determination as to what is an EPA Hazardous Waste? EPA required. Follow this link to make a hazardous waste determination. If your waste stream is the same every time, you can send EHS (E-1702) a waste(s) profile for characterization as an EPA Haz. Waste so that we keep it in you compliance records.

32.Is your Waste Manager aware of the EPA’s hazardous waste (HW) requirements: accumulating the HW in a dedicated area in the lab, in containers suitable for the waste which are closed at all times except when adding more waste, placing the HW container in a labeled secondary spill tray , ensuring that each HW container is labeled with the “Hazardous Waste” sticker (as soon as you begin to collect the waste) provided by EHS and dated, separating the HW containers from each other if there is any potential for reactivity between wastes, and calling EHS at least once a semester unless you have excess accumulation of HW) for waste removal. Sink disposal of any HW is an EPA violation.

33. Has everyone working in the lab attended the Regulated Waste Awareness program offered by the college? EPA required.

34.Is everyone working in the laboratory aware of the location of the Material Safety Data Sheet(s) or MSDSs for your chemicals and know how to find them? Our www.hunter.cuny.edu/ehs site has provides MSDS links. EPA and OSHA required.

35.Is every one working in the laboratory aware of a Contingency Plan to respond to a chemical spill? EPA required.

36.Is there a person in the lab at all times who is aware of the location of the closest spill kit and how to respond to a chemical spill?

37.Do you notify EHS every time a HW spill occurs and indicate the quantity, location and measures followed to control the spill and dispose of the waste? EPA required

38.Are the persons working with infectious or potentially infectious body fluids familiar with OSHA’s Bloodborne Pathogen Standard?

39.Has everyone working with infectious body fluids attended a Blood Borne Pathogen training program?

40.If you do research work with pathogenic/infectious agents, do you use a biosafety cabinet appropriate for NIH biosafety level of research that you conduct?

41.Do you manage and separate potentially infectious agents and sharps (slides, needles etc.) from the regular garbage and use the appropriate containers to package that waste for disposal?

42.Do you package sharps in red, rigid, puncture and break resistant, leak proof containers?

43.Are you familiar with OSHA’s “Chemical Hygiene Standard” and the Hunter College Chemical Hygiene Plan?

Certification and Assurance

I assure that this laboratory follows safety and occupational health programs that meet appropriate Federal, State and local regulations as required by law. I assure that all hazards associated with my research laboratory have been identified, eliminated and/or controlled in such a manner as to provide for a safe teaching or research laboratory environment. I assume responsibility for the storage of hazardous waste in the laboratory until disposal by the Environmental Health and Safety and for minimizing, managing and properly segregating the chemicals in my lab.