Creating Your Safety Reference Book

        The College of Biological Sciences Safety Reference Book has been devised as a method of initially fulfilling a Principal Investigator's responsibility to conduct scientific research in the university setting in compliance with the OSHA Laboratory Standard (29 CFR Part 1910.1450 -Occupational Exposure to Hazardous Chemicals in Laboratories) as it is expressed in Ohio law.  The Safety Reference Book has been designed to permit each Principal Investigator to create a useful and handy safety reference tool that is unique to his or her research and lab spaces with a minimum of effort. 

The Safety Reference Book is comprised of ten parts:

• 1. The Chemical Hygiene Plan   -The CHP is a 28 page document that can be easily printed by accessing the College Safety Policy Page Chemical Hygiene Plan link.  Here you will find a guide in PDF to preparing this document.  The Acrobat Reader to access these documents is also available.  By using less than twenty interactive fields, it is possible to  print this document in less than 30 minutes.  Any of the listed appendices that apply should be downloaded and included.

• 2. Hazardous Chemical Inventory -This is not intended to be a complete inventory of every chemical present.  Rather it is a short list of the chemicals that, in the judgment of the principal investigator, pose true risk and serious hazards in the manipulation of those agents in the day-to-day function of that laboratory.  This list should include flammables, toxics, carcinogens, teratogens, pyrophorics, oxidizers, and any other chemical that the principal investigator deems to be a true risk.   The Appendices of the Reference Guide of Hazardous Chemicals used by the CDC or the MSU- NFPA Chemical Hazard Labels Page can be used to help determine risks of laboratory chemicals. This list should include all chemicals with a NFPA rating of 4 and any chemicals with which the principal investigator deems an inexperienced work-study student should be familiarized.  An interactive inventory form and lists of classes of hazardous chemicals can also found on the College Safety Policy CHP Page.  This inventory should be updated whenever a new chemical hazard enters the lab and reviewed annually.  NOTE:  This is a great opportunity to rid your lab of old, degraded, compromised or useless chemicals.    See OHES Hazardous Chem Disposal for help that makes this almost painless.

• 3. Material Safety Data Sheets  -MSDS's are compilations of safety data for every chemical labeled as hazardous.  Hard copies of MSDS's for the items included in the Hazardous Chemical Inventory above should be filed in this section.   This hard copy file creates an instant reference that can be used to orient a new student or worker to the dangers associated with the chemicals in the laboratory and as an information source for physical characteristics, health risks, storage/handling/labeling/disposal requirements, spill control measures, and personal protection equipment guidelines associated with each risky chemical.  Many of these MSDS's can be downloaded from the College Chemical Safety Page or searched by using the College Find MSDS Page  Limiting this index to chemicals that are true risks keeps this file useful and germane and avoids the three inch thick piles of unidexed MSDS's that prove useless.  Lab members should be trained to access other MSDS's electronically.

• 4. Standard Operating Procedures  - An SOP is a set of instructions detailing the procedures, precautions and methods used to ensure that a chemical operation or experiment is conducted properly and safely.  The protocols for operations involving the hazardous chemicals listed above should be placed in this section.  It is desirable that  unique instructions for your lab and its spaces be used so that instructions specific to that workspace are available.  For some standard operations, such as handling concentrated acids, phenol, acrilamide, ethidium bromide, formaldehyde, or carcinogens, universal generic SOP's are available: (../SOP/StandardOperatingProcedures.htm)

• 5. Training Logs  -The OSHA Lab Standard mentions both generic and specialized safety training requirements.  This section provides a log and permanent record of these requirements whenever training is implemented.  This training is to be designed and implemented with Faculty and researcher input.

• 6. Inspection Logs  -The OSHA Lab Standard mentions requirements for self-inspections on a regular basis.  This section serves as a record of safety checks on items such as safety showers, eyewashes, fume hoods, fire devices etc.  The outline and form for this inspection are available on the Safety Page (../inspection.pdf).

• 7. Accident Reporting -This section will contain instructions for actions in the event of emergency and OSU Accident Report Forms.  Again, all this material is available from the College Safety Accident Reporting Page.

• 8. Emergency & Spill Procedures  -This section provides a repository for specialized spill control procedures and emergency instructions for unique agents or chemicals in the laboratory area.  This information should include location and instructions for any spill kits that are required to deal with a chemical emergency.  Generalized Emergency procedures can be downloaded from the College Safety Emergency Response Page Text Version.

• 9. Hazardous Waste Guidelines  -The College Guidelines for Disposal of Hazardous Waste and any precautions for unique disposal problems should be referenced here.  College Guidelines and a flow sheet can be downloaded from the College Safety Page.

• 10. Policy Unique to This Laboratory  -This section provides an area for safety documents in areas beyond chemical safety.  Topics such as Biohazard Containment, Bloodborne Pathogen programs, Exposure Control Plans, required health risk monitoring, and Select Agent use might be included here.

     The Deans of the College are committed to aiding this effort in any way possible.  The College will provide all needed binders and index tabs as well as cover graphics.  Also, the Safety Officer will be available by appointment (292-5517--lawton.3@osu.edu) to lend any assistance possible to make the preparation of the Safety Reference Books as easy as it can be.

     It is our hope that whatever effort is necessary to create and update The Safety Reference Book will result in a usable and useful document that will serve as a helpful safety reference for all laboratory members, a visible orientation guide for new laboratory workers and visitors, and a start toward fulfillment of the Principal Investigator's legal requirements.