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Recommendations: Data, Hazard Identification, and Analysis

Recommendation 13. The institution implements routine hazard analyses and includes them as integral components of undergraduate and graduate education; thesis, dissertation, and funding proposals; and experimental design for all experiments.

Tools for Recommendation 13

  • OSHA’s Worksite Analysis.
    Available at OSHA.
    OSHA’s Safety & Health Management Systems eTool provides general guidance on workplace safety and conducting a worksite analysis, including analysis of past accident history, routine inspections, change analysis with new procedures, and more.
  • Hazard Control
    Available at OSHA.
    Provides guidance on minimizing hazards, including considering design, enclosure of hazards, barriers, and administrative controls.
  • Safety and Health Program Management Guidelines
    Available at OSHA.
    (Federal Register 54:3904-3916, 1989) consist of safety and health management practices that are used by employers who are successful in protecting the safety and health of their employees.
  • ANSI/AIHA Z10-2012 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems
    Available at ASSE.
    The primary purpose of this standard is to provide a management tool to reduce the risk of occupational injuries, illnesses and fatalities.
  • American Chemical Society Committee on Chemical Safety (2013). Identifying and Evaluating Hazards in Research Laboratories: Guidelines Developed by the Hazards Identification and Evaluation Task Force. American Chemical Society, Washington, DC.
    Available at ACS.
    This tool provides guidance on identifying and evaluating hazards in research laboratories and managing the associated risks. It includes chapters on hazard identification, roles and responsibilities, what-if analysis, and more.
  • UCLA’s Laboratory Hazard Assessment Tool
    Available at UCLA.
    Facilitates identification of hazards and identifies the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to be used during the specified work activities.
  • NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards.
    Available at CDC.
    A source of general industrial hygiene information for workers and employers to help recognize and control occupational chemical hazards.
  • Organization List from ISASH
    Available at ISASH.
    The International Society for Agricultural Safety and Health (ISASH) has a list of organizations dedicated to improving agricultural safety with associated helpful resources.
  • Agricultural Safety Papers.
    Available at ISASH.
    ISASH has papers on agricultural safety.
  • Guidance on Health and Safety in Fieldwork (2011)
    Available at Universities and Colleges Employers Association.
    Has core actions, good practices, and case studies to help universities navigate the hazards in fieldwork. It is based on British Standard 8848.
  • American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Guidelines for Biosafety in Teaching Laboratories.
    Available at ASM.
    The guidelines are written for educators to make the biosafety information accessible and practical for educators. They were developed in response to the 2011     Salmonella ​Typhimurium outbreak reported by the CDC. More info from the CDC on Salmonella ​outbreaks linked to teaching laboratories is here: http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/typhimurium-labs-06-14/index.html. The Biosafety guidelines were also published in JMBE in 2013 here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3706168/pdf/jmbe-14-78.pdf
  • Bridging Science and Security for Biological Research workshop (2013).
    Available at AAAS.
    In February 2013, AAAS, AAU, APLU, and the FBI hosted a meeting on international science and security in the life sciences to identify current challenges in addressing safety, security, and ethics while conducting or enabling biological research with foreign students, faculty, staff, or collaborating partners. The findings of the meetings are summarized in the workshop report.
  • Biological Safety Training as a Component of Personnel Reliability (2009).
    Available at AAAS.
    AAAS conducted a study of biosafety training programs with the goals of documenting and describing existing educational programs and materials on biosafety training programs, highlight major challenges, and provide recommendations for developing and implementing educational initiatives on biosafety and access to high-containment laboratories.
  • From Safe Science: Promoting a Culture of Safety in Academic Chemical Research (NRC, 2014):
    • Recommendation 8: The researcher and principal investigator should incorporate hazard analysis into laboratory notebooks prior to experiments, integrate hazard analysis into the research process, and ensure that it is specific to the laboratory and research topic area.
  • From Creating Safety Cultures in Academic Institutions (ACS, 2012):
    • Recommendation 6. Implement hazards analysis procedures in all new lab work, especially laboratory research.
  • From Texas Tech Laboratory Explosion Case Study (CSB, 2010)
    • Key Lesson 1. An academic institution modeling its laboratory safety management plan after OSHA’s Laboratory Standard (29 CFR 1910.1450) should ensure that all safety hazards, including physical hazards of chemicals, be addressed.
    • Key Lesson 2. Academic institutions should ensure that practices and procedures are in place to verify that research-specific hazards are evaluated and mitigated.
    • Key Lesson 3. Comprehensive guidance on managing the hazards unique to laboratory chemical research in the academic environment is lacking. Current standards on hazard evaluations, risk assessments, and hazard mitigation are geared towards industrial settings and are not fully transferable to the academic research laboratory environment.

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