Workplace Safety

The campuswide Workplace Safety Program serves as the university’s central program for creating a safe and healthful work environment.

Respiratory Protection

EH&S evaluates workplaces for possible airborne hazards and recommends ways to reduce these hazards when found. When appropriate, EH&S will fit campus workers with respirators and provide annual training on their proper use. This program is administered in cooperation with University Health Services. UHS evaluates a person's ability to safely wear a respirator prior to a respirator being issued. For more information contact EH&S at ehs@berkeley.edu.

Do not...

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Respiratory Protection

Office of Environment, Health & Safety

2023

There are several ways to protect against exposure to airborne contaminants. The most effective are engineering and administrative controls. (Engineering controls can include measures such as increasing ventilation or installing a fume hood; administrative controls involve changes in work procedures.) The law requires that these controls be considered before employees are issued respirators. If engineering and administrative controls are infeasible, respirators can be assigned.

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Wildfire Smoke N95 Distribution Schedule

Environment, Health & Safety (EH&S) distributes N95 masks to employees when campus is impacted by unhealthy air quality due to wildfire smoke.

At an AQI of 100 and above, EH&S will distribute masks to staff who are particularly sensitive to wildfire smoke.

At an AQI of 150 and above, EH&S will distribute masks to all staff.

At an AQI above 200, additional decisions about campus operations will be communicated to the community.

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Laser Safety Pause Attestation: Submit by Jan 31

January 10, 2023

Office of Environment, Health, and Safety

This is reminder was sent to Laser Use PIs as follow-up to the Vice Chancellor of Research, Katherine Yelick’s, October 28, 2022 message.

SUBMIT BY 01/31/2023: All PIs must submit an attestation that they have organized a safety pause meeting by January 31, 2023. Failure to...

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Laser Shutdown & Safety Day - November 9, 2022

October 28, 2022

The following message was sent to Laser Use Principal Investigators (PIs) on October 28, 2022. Laser Free Day - November 9, 2022 After nearly 20 years without any reported laser injuries and only a few laser incidents on the Berkeley campus, there have been 5 laser exposure incidents within the past 15 months. One incident led to minor, but permanent, retinal damage in a student. For each incident, there were violations of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and/or failure to adhere to campus regulations on laser use.

In response to this uptick, I am...

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Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for Labs

A standard operating procedure (SOP) is a set of instructions for performing experiments or processes that involve hazards (chemical, physical, biological, radiation). SOPs are lab-specific and include documentation of the people who have received training for that procedure.

New students and employees working in your lab should be provided with hands-on training for hazardous materials and operations that are covered by the SOPs for your lab.

SOPs by Hazard Type Chemicals & General Lab Safety

Written SOPs are required for all hazardous operations/activities. A library of...

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UC Berkeley Mold Awareness and Guidance

Overview

Mold is a type of fungus that can produce spores which are released into the air. Mold can be found everywhere and can be detected year-round, both indoors and outdoors. Persistent warm and humid conditions promote mold growth. Exposure to damp and moldy environments may cause a variety of health effects, or none at all. For people who are sensitive to mold, exposure can cause nasal stuffiness, throat irritation, coughing or wheezing, eye irritation, and in some cases, skin irritation.

No matter what type of mold is present it should be removed.

Please...

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Nitric Acid Waste Over-pressurization Event

July 3, 2018

Office of Environment, Health, and Safety

What happened?

A graduate student researcher was consolidating aqueous nitric acid solutions into a 4-L bottle marked as hazardous waste. The bottle was stored inside a fume hood along with other waste bottles, organic reagent bottles, a hotplate and an oil bath. The fume hood sash was left open when all researchers left at the end of the day.

Several hours later, a custodian entered the lab and saw broken glass and brown liquid on the floor. It appears that the nitric acid waste was stored in a bottle that contained residual organic compounds, the combination of which generated...