Laboratory Safety

Laboratory operations can be dangerous whether you are working with hazardous materials or equipment or just performing common laboratory procedures.  Every day there are incidents that occur in teaching and research laboratories on campuses across the country.  Although many accidents are minor, there are also serious cases, including fatalities.  Periodically, CCNy has multiple incidents in our laboratories.  Our goal is to reduce that number and reduce accidental injuries.

In collaboration with CUNY, EHOS provides a Laboratory Safety Manual.  EHOS has also prepared manuals specifically for CCNY.  Our manuals promote safe and practical laboratory procedures, including information on the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), and emergency procedures, and incident response.  It is important to recognize that this manual does not cover all the risks and hazards in every laboratory.  You may also review our Lab Self Inspection Checklist.  There are a wide variety of hazardous materials handled in laboratories at CCNY.  As a final note, EHOS would like to remind you that CUNY expects each Principal Investigator (PI) to fully append any supplementary safety information to this manual pertinent to their specific laboratory.

Chemical Hygiene

All laboratories which use chemicals are required to abide by the standards set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR 1910.1450), Occupational Exposure to Hazardous Chemicals in Laboratories; commonly known as the "Laboratory Safety Standard".  EHOS has developed a Chemical Hygiene Plan to give PIs and lab supervisors directions for complying with this regulation, but the manual is not intended to provide a review of the details of the regulation -- for details see Laboratory Safety Standard. 

Important Document 

Last Updated: 10/13/2020 13:01