Chemical and Biological Safety Training

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Chemical and Biological Safety Training

• Center for Environmental Health and Safety
• SIUC

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• Training is required annually for all people who
  work with chemical or biological agents.
• There are two regulatory agencies which required
  annual training the Occupational Safety and
  Health Administration, or OSHA, and the
  Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA.

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OSHA

• Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a
  Federal agency
• BUT in Illinois, the OSHA regulations are
  administered by the Illinois Department of Labor
• So the Illinois Department of Labor is our OSHA
  agency

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OSHA Standard 1Formaldehyde

• Regulates the use of formaldehyde, formalin, and
  paraformaldehyde
• Establishes Permissible Exposure Limit of 0.75
  parts per million in 8 hours
• Formaldehyde products are known human carcinogens

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OSHA Standard 2Air Contaminants

• Lists more than 400 substances
• Establishes Permissible Exposure Limits, PELs
  legal limits
• Most PELs are outdated and too high
• Better numbers are from Recommended Exposure
  Limits, RELs
• PELs can be enforced by law, but RELs are just
  recommendations

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OSHA Standard 3Respiratory Protection

• Requires that respiratory protection be used if
  engineering controls cant remove all the air
  contaminants
• Must have a medical evaluation and annual fit
  testing
• Use full-face and half-face respirators
• Disposable paper masks and surgical masks DO NOT
  protect you against chemicals!

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OSHA Standard 4Hazard Communication Standard

• Mainly for industrial use of chemicals , like in
  factories
• You have the right to know about hazardous
  chemicals!
• Requires improved chemical safety labeling, with
  9 hazard pictograms
• Requires improved safety data sheets
• Requires training

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OSHA Standards 5Occupational Exposure to
Hazardous Chemicals in Laboratories

• Protects against hazardous chemical exposure in
  laboratories
• Requires a chemical hygiene plan
• Requires safety data sheets
• Requires training for physical and health hazards
  
• Requires training records

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Chemical Hygiene Plan

• A safety manual for laboratories
• Distributed in the new Chemical and Biological
  Safety Manual
• This 3-ring binder is in every lab on campus
• Lists standard operating procedures
• Must be reviewed every year

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Safety Data Sheets

• Sent by the manufacturer the FIRST time you order
  a chemical
• Keep them in the lab or always accessible (not
  locked up somewhere)
• You must have an SDS for every chemical in your
  lab
• Only one source of safety information other
  sources can be used too

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Chemical Exposure

• Routes of exposure inhalation, absorption,
  ingestion, injection (parenteral)
• Chronic exposure is long-term, usually low-level
• Acute exposure is short-term, usually high-level
• Symptoms coughing, burning, itching, rash, eye
  or throat irritation

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Reduce Chemical Exposure

• Work with the smallest amount of chemical
  possible
• Dont leave chemical containers open
• Work in a fume hood. CEHS measures and certifies
  the hoods at least annually.
• Wear personal protective equipment lab coat
  (buttoned up), disposable gloves, eye protection

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Glove Protocol

• Dont use latex gloves. Choose nitrile or vinyl.
  
• Never re-use a disposable glove.
• Once you put gloves on, you must assume that all
  the surfaces are contaminated. Dont touch the
  light switch, faucet handles, drawer handles.
• Take your gloves off before you leave the lab!
  Do NOT wear gloves in the halls!

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Physical Hazard in the Lab

• These are things that release energy violently.
• We will discuss the most common ones found in our
  labs.
• They are the most common source of injuries in
  labs.

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Physical Hazards

• Flammable Liquids
• Handle them in a fume hood!
• Store them in a flammables cabinet
• Extreme temperatures
• Autoclaves, Cryogens, High-Temperature Processes
• Air- and water-reactive compounds
• Dont handle them on the bench!
• Use a glove box!

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Physical Hazards

• Corrosives
• Acids (low pH) and bases (high pH)
• Handle in a fume hood!
• Compressed gas cylinders
• Must be tied up at all times
• Must have a cap over the valve, unless a
  regulator is attached
• Separate empty cylinders from full cylinders

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Physical Hazards

• Oxidizers Chemicals that promote and support
  fires. Chemicals with per in the name
  (peroxides, permanganates), nitric acid, most
  nitrate salts. Store them AWAY from flammable
  liquids!
• Peroxidizable compounds Chemicals that become
  shock-sensitive with time, like ether and THF.
  Keep them only for a year!

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Health Hazards in the Lab

• Hazard
• Carcinogens
• (formaldehyde)
• Reproductive toxins
• (chloroform)
• Allergens
• (latex)
• Corrosives
• (acids, bases)
• Specific organ toxicity
• (acrylomide, neurotoxin)

• Controls for all health hazards
• Minimize exposure
• Use fume hoods
• Wear correct PPE
• Use smallest amount possible

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Institutional Oversight, Part 1

• There are certain things with which you cannot
  work until you have special training, submit a
  protocol form to an institutional committee, and
  get approval.
• IRB Institutional Review Board for work with
  human subjects
• IBC Institutional Biosafety Committee for work
  with recombinant DNA and human pathogens

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Institutional Oversight, Part 2

• Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee,
  IACUC all vertebrate animals
• Radiation Safety Committee radioisotopes, sealed
  sources

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Training Records

• Each person must have a paper training record
  completely filled out and signed, kept in the lab
  where he/she works
• Put them in the correct section of the new
  Chemical and Biological Safety Manual

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Emergency Contingency Plan

• Required by both OSHA and EPA
• Fill out, sign, date every year
• Hang inside lab near door
• Color-coded each year

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Commonly-Cited OSHA Noncompliances

• Cluttered, dirty workspaces

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Commonly-Cited OSHA Noncompliances

• Unlabeled or improperly labeled containers

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Commonly-Cited OSHA Noncompliances

• Blocked emergency exits and blocked safety
  equipment

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Chemical Spills

• You clean it up
• If its a small spill
• If you have the correct personal protective
  equipment
• Clean it up, put it in a plastic bag, label it as
  chemical waste
• CEHS cleans it up
• If you are afraid of reactions or offgassing
• If you dont have the correct PPE
• If its larger than 5 gallons

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Biological Safety

• There arent many laws about biological safety
• Funding agency, National Institutes of Health
  (NIH) has regulations
• If anyone on campus receives NIH funding,
  everyone must abide by the NIH regulations
• Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical
  Laboratories BMBL

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Hazardous Waste

• Regulatory agency is the Environmental Protection
  Agency, or EPA
• There is a Federal agency, and state agencies
• We have Illinois EPA as our agency
• The law is called Resource Conservation Recovery
  Act, or RCRA

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What NOT to Put Down the Drain or In the Trash!

• Flammable liquids
• Alcohols, acetone, ethyl acetate, etc.
• Corrosive liquids
• acids with a pH less than 2 or bases with a pH
  over 9.5
• Air- or Water-reactive compounds
• Toxic compounds
• Metals, solvents, herbicides, pesticides, toxic
  organic compounds

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CEHS Disposes Hazardous Waste

• We will bring you clean, dry, unlabeled bottles
  with screw tops, any size from 100 g to 55
  gallons
• You collect waste and store it in your Satellite
  Waste Accumulation Area
• Request a waste pickup online
• CEHS will come get it, bring it to our Central
  Waste Accumulation Area and send it offsite to a
  contractor
• THERE IS NO CHARGE FOR ANY OF THIS!
• If in doubt dont put it down the drain, send
  it to CEHS

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Chemical Waste Containers

• Use bottles with screw lids.
• No stoppers
• No parafilm
• No duct tape!

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Chemical Waste Labeling

• Completely remove all other labels
• Use a yellow Hazardous Waste label
• Do NOT put it on top of another label!

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Waste Segregation

• Do NOT pour all chemical waste into one
  container!
• Separate out waste streams as much as possible.
• Its more easily recycled, less expensive, less
  likely to react
• CEHS will give you as many bottles for waste as
  you want, for free

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Satellite Waste Accumulation Area

• Choose a place for waste in your lab and hang the
  poster up
• Get everything else out from the area no good
  reagents, no apparatus, no junk
• Place the bottles with the yellow labels in it
• One bottle for each kind of waste
• When you fill up a bottle, file an electronic
  pickup request form and CEHS will get it

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Satellite Waste Accumulation Area

• Area must be inspected every 31 days!
• Fill the form out, sign and date it, put it in
  the 3-ring binder

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Common Chemical Waste Noncompliances

• No yellow label on waste container
• Multiple labels on a single container

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Common Chemical Waste Noncompliances

• Any chemical container in the lab that is
  damaged, leaking, bulging, rusty, or unlabeled is
  DEEMED BY EPA to be hazardous waste.
• Get rid of them!

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Biological Waste

• There are two kinds of biological waste.
• This kind is heavily regulated. Keep it separate.
  Potentially infectious medical waste
• Sharps containers
• Recombinant DNA
• Chemotherapeutic agents
• Pathogenic microorganisms
• Waste soaked in human blood
• This kind is less heavily regulated. Keep it
  separate. Non-potentially infectious medical
  waste
• Animal carcasses
• Petri plates
• Exam room waste

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Biological Waste Disposal

• Put biological waste in a red bag, then in a red
  plastic bin or a specially marked cardboard box
• Fill out an online pickup request form
• CEHS collects biological waste on Wednesdays and
  takes it to the incinerator at Physical Plant

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Waste Minimization

• Separate different kinds of waste (acids, bases,
  solvents, toxic salts, etc.)
• Substitution of less hazardous materials
• Work on semi-micro or micro scale
• Purchase the smallest amount useable
• Avoid As, Ba, Cd, Cr, Pb, Hg, Se, Ag, CN
• Dont purchase compressed cylinders order
  refillable ones from Airgas
• Use digital photography if possible

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No Mercury!

• Mercury thermometers and mercury-containing
  equipment are no longer allowed at SIU
• Mercury is very environmentally persistent
• Mercury vapor is a potent neurotoxin
• If you spill mercury, DO NOT try to clean it up!
  Get everyone out of the lab and call CEHS.

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• Questions?
• Contact
• Center for Environmental Health and Safety
• www.cehs.siu.edu
• 453-5187