Laboratory Compliance
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has developed numerous workplace regulations designed to prevent injuries and protect the health of workers. Laboratories are unique workplaces and in order to address the worker protection needs of these facilities OSHA developed a standard, Occupational Exposure to Hazardous Chemicals in Laboratories (29 CFR 1910.1450).
This standard, often referred to as the OSHA Laboratory Standard, imposes many requirements, including developing a written Chemical Hygiene Plan. The complete Chemical Hygiene Plan (CHP) for all university laboratories consists of three parts: The UW-Madison Campus Chemical Hygiene Plan and Compliance Guide, a laboratory-specific CHP, and the UW-Madison Laboratory Safety Guide. These are described below.
The UW-Madison Campus Chemical Hygiene Plan and Compliance Guide
This document outlines roles and responsibilities for key personnel, contains policies and practices applicable to the entire campus, and provides an overview of the various regulations applicable to operations in a campus laboratory. It also provides information on other regulations such as fire codes, hazardous waste regulations, chemical shipping requirements and other requirements pertaining to the use of hazardous chemicals in the laboratory.
The Laboratory Chemical Hygiene Plan (Laboratory CHP)
Each Principal Investigator or their laboratory’s Chemical Hygiene Officer must prepare a laboratory-specific Chemical Hygiene Plan that includes the following information specific to their laboratory’s operations:
- Standard operating procedures (SOPs)
- Personal protective equipment (PPE) requirements
- Engineering and administrative controls
- Provisions for handling Particularly Hazardous Substances
- Provisions for designating specific operations that shall require prior approval before initiating Training prerequisites.
Some commonly asked questions and answers about the Laboratory CHP can be found here. To ease the process, a template has been developed to aid in the completion of the Laboratory CHP.
There is also a fillable version of the SOP Procedure Form found in section 4 of the above template for users that need forms for multiple SOPs. Click here to download this template.
The UW-Madison Laboratory Safety Guide
The Laboratory Safety Guide is prepared by the Chemical Safety Office within the Environment, Health & Safety Department (EH&S). It contains a wealth of information including specific practices and procedures for the safe use and disposal of chemicals. The Chemical Safety Office also provides guidance documents on specific topics.