Workplace Safety

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

Mold Awareness and Guidance Program

Office of Environment, Health & Safety
2024

Mold can be found everywhere, and can be detected both indoors and outdoors, year-round. Persistent warm and humid conditions promote mold growth. Outdoor mold can be found in shady, damp areas or places where leaves or other vegetation is decomposing. Indoor mold can be found where humidity levels are high (like basements and showers) and where moist organic material accumulates (e.g. dirty carpets). Spoiled, rotten food is also a typical source of mold growth. It is common for mold to grow on materials like fiberboard, gypsum board, and paper.

Exposure to damp and moldy...

Lock-Out Tag-Out Energy Isolation (LOTO)

2022

The UC Berkeley Lockout/Tagout Energy Isolation (LOTO) Program requires campus, field station personnel, and contractors to implement safe procedures when working on UCB equipment or utility systems with one or more energy sources. Because of the potential for injury from energy sources that operate equipment/utility systems, this program guides safe installation, set-up, adjustment, and maintenance work on equipment by isolating energy sources prior to commencing work. The program is required by Cal/OSHA safety regulations.

Energy Isolation Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) Program

Overview

The UC Berkeley Lockout/Tagout Energy Isolation (LOTO) Program requires campus, field station personnel, and contractors to implement safe procedures when working on UCB equipment or utility systems with one or more energy sources. Because of the potential for injury from energy sources that operate equipment/utility systems, this program guides safe installation, set-up, adjustment, and maintenance work on equipment by isolating energy sources prior to commencing work. The program is...

Heat Illness Prevention and Response

Heat Illness Prevention and Response

Work in hot environments can have direct effects on human health including, heat exhaustion, heat stoke, and can lead to reduced labor productivityAll university employees who work outdoors or in environments with elevated indoor temperatures may be at risk for heat illness– the group of medical conditions caused by the body’s inability to cope with heat.

Heat exposure can...

Communication

Open two-way communication between management and employees on health and safety issues is essential to an injury-free, productive workplace. A variety of established communication systems to communicate safety issues to everyone are available:

General Self-Assessment Form

Office of Environment, Health & Safety
2022

This self-assessment form should be used to document safety assessments in large office suites, areas with multiple cubicles, copy rooms, coffee rooms, and other common work areas. It should not be used for individual offices, nor for non-administrative areas such as shops, laboratories, and areas containing any hazardous materials.

Office Self-Assessment Form

Office of Environment, Health & Safety
2022

This self-assessment form should be used to document safety assessments of individual offices. It should not be used for general administrative areas such as large office suites, areas with multiple cubicles, copy rooms, coffee rooms, and other common work areas, nor for non-administrative areas such as shops, laboratories, and areas containing any hazardous materials.

Freezer

Office of Environment, Health & Safety
2003

Storing Flammable Liquids in Refrigerators and Freezers

Flammable material refrigerators and freezers are designed to prevent ignition of flammable vapors inside the storage compartment and should be purchased whenever a refrigerator is needed to store flammable liquid. A flammable liquid is defined by the fire code as having a flash point of less than 100 ˚F (38˚C).

Storing Flammable Liquids in Refrigerators and Freezers, Fact Sheet

Sewer System Management Plans

Wastewater generated at UC Berkeley is conveyed through our sanitary sewer collection systems and eventually flows to EBMUD's wastewater treatment plant in Oakland prior to discharge to the San Francisco Bay.

The Waste Discharge Requirements Order No. 2022-0103-DWQ adopted by the State Water Resources Control Board regulates sanitary sewer systems greater than one mile in length (each individual sanitary sewer system).

UC Berkeley maintains regulatory coverage for three collection systems:

Sewer System Management Plans

(All...

Heat Illness Prevention Program

2026

Heat illness is a serious medical condition that results when the body is unable to cool itself sufficiently through sweating. Both personal and environmental factors can contribute to the likelihood of developing heat related illnesses which includes heat stress, heat exhaustion, heat cramps, heat syncope (fainting) and ultimately, heat stroke.

The purpose of the UC Berkeley Heat Illness Prevention Program is to ensure that all UC Berkeley employees, working in indoor and outdoor places of employment or in other areas where environmental risk factors for heat illness are present,...