The current issue of the Industrial Hygiene News has an excellent article on laboratory safety called “A Chemical Lab Safety Refresher” written by Mr. Phillip G. Retallick, who is the Senior Vice President Regulatory Affairs for Clean Harbors.  The article covers the typical information regarding lab safety – training, storage, disposal, labeling, and compliance audits.  One of the more interesting sections was the discussion on the requirements of a good industrial hygiene program.  This section discussed the need for a worksite analysis and a well-defined and monitored work practices.  The need for a Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) Registry software and routine monitoring of the air to ensure lab staff are protected is not typically discussed.  The assumption is that sufficient ventilation will handle any potential problems.  However, how do you know you have sufficient ventilation?  Monitoring is the best way to ensure that.  The article list important resources such as the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “Environmental Management Guide for Small Laboratories” and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration‘s (OSHA) hazardous materials portion (Section H) of 29 CFR 1910.  A short and to the point article on Lab Safety.

Related articles

• ACS Council takes up academic lab safety (cenblog.org)
• Friday chemical safety round-up (cenblog.org)
• The Laboratory Safety Song (guardian.co.uk)
• ACC’s chemical prioritization tool: Helpful, but flawed and off the mark for EPA to use without TSCA reform (blogs.edf.org)
• Chemical Accidents Sickens 54 in Bohemia, NY (futureenv.blogspot.com)
• Safety costs of harmonised laws revealed (safetyatworkblog.wordpress.com)

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