Principal investigators do not have the time nor the interest to provide lab safety training for their new staff. We have developed a series of lab safety training courses offered throughout the year, a quick reference emergency guide, a comprehensive occupational health and environmental compliance manual and web site, and a friendly audit program. This program focuses on training as a key element in an effective overall lab safety program. The training program consists of a 2-hour general lab safety course and two supplemental courses. The supplemental courses cover a variety of lab safety topics.
Classes are open to all lab staff to attend as a refresher if needed.
The auditing process becomes a group effort towards regulatory compliance. By providing useful safety information in many formats, and training researchers and technicians as they come on board, we have developed a lab safety program which is both meaningful and manageable for everyone. With full cooperation of the college dean and department chair, chemicals that showed signs of extreme deterioration, expired expiration dates or poor container integrity were discarded. The usable chemicals were returned to the storage area after a computerized inventory was completed. They were subsequently arranged alphabetically.