Lab Safety

Providing support, in the form of risk assessment, review, consultation(link sends e-mail), training, and the necessary resources and guidance for research at UC Berkeley.

Compressed Gas Cylinders: Proper Management And Use

Office of Environment, Health & Safety
2012

University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) departments that use compressed gas cylinders must comply with a wide variety of laws and regulations, including those issued by Cal/OSHA, the California Fire Code and the City of Berkeley. This booklet provides general guidelines to help departments comply with those regulations. More specific information can be obtained from Material Safety Data Sheets and your department’s Job Safety Analyses (JSAs). Talk to your gas supplier about hands-on training and other useful safety information.

Compressed gas cylinders range from small...

Corrosives (Acids and Bases)

Office of Environment, Health & Safety
2011

Acids and bases are some of the most common hazardous chemicals used in laboratories. They are useful in an array of different experiments, but caution must be used while working with these corrosive compounds. Whether the compound is on the extreme high or low end on the pH scale, proper steps must be taken to ensure your safety. This fact sheet provides information that should be incorporated into – or referenced in – written Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s) for laboratory processes that use corrosives.

Carcinogens

Office of Environment, Health & Safety
2012

The Carcinogens Fact Sheet and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) specify minimum requirements for safe storage, use, and handling of carcinogens on the UC Berkeley Campus. This fact sheet has been approved by the Laboratory Operations & Safety Committee and defines carcinogens as chemicals that cause cancer or tumor development, typically after repeated or chronic exposure. Their effects may only become evident after a long latency period and may cause no immediate harmful effects.

Radiation Use Authorization Application

Office of Environment, Health & Safety
Radiation Use Authorization (RUA) Application Form

The use of radioactive materials or radiation producing machines (RPMs) at UC Berkeley must occur under an approved Radiation Use Authorization (RUA).

Guidelines for Handling Animal Reservoirs of Hantaviruses

Office of Environment, Health & Safety
2005

These guidelines are based on practices recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in areas known to have produced fatal human cases of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS). The guidelines have been modified by the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) to address fieldwork in areas of undefined risk, and to educate employees on how best to protect against hantavirus infection in the field. The guidelines are reissued as additional information about fieldwork practices and the epidemiology of hantaviruses becomes available.

Clutter as a Laboratory Safety Concern

Office of Environment, Health & Safety
2007

Campus laboratories that are cluttered and poorly organized present a variety of safety hazards to researchers, students, and visitors. In some cases, campus laboratories have been cited by government regulators for excessive clutter and related hazards.

Laboratory-Specific Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

Office of Environment, Health & Safety
2009

A Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is a written set of instructions that document how to safely perform work involving hazardous materials or hazardous operations. SOPs are required by Cal/OSHA . There are no specific legal requirements regarding their content.

Exploding Cylinder in Garbage

July 31, 2007
Office of Environment, Health, and Safety
What Happened?

On April 11, 2007, an employee of Campus Recycling and Refuse Services was alarmed when a suspected compressed gas cylinder ruptured in the rear hopper of a garbage truck. The employee was standing at the rear of the truck and had activated the blade that sweeps the garbage from the hopper into the body of the truck for further compaction. The pressurized gas cylinder was believed to be concealed inside a plastic trash bag. The sweeping action of the blade ruptured the cylinder and the residual contents sprayed into the employee’s face.

A cylinder in a garbage truck...

Discovery of an Old Container of Potentially Explosive Chemical

June 30, 2008
Office of Environment, Health, and Safety
What Happened?

While working in a UC Berkeley laboratory, a graduate student discovered the presence of an old experimental set-up, which was labeled as containing a small amount of hydrazoic acid, in a shared cold room with no responsible contact person. This material is a potentially explosive chemical under certain circumstances, so the student referred the set-up to the Department Safety Coordinator (DSC). The DSC requested the assistance of EH&S who recommended that the set-up be disposed of by an explosives material contractor because very little was known about the source...

Improperly Vented Experiment Causes Explosion and Burns

June 30, 2008
Office of Environment, Health, and Safety
What Happened?

A graduate student working in a UC Berkeley laboratory was performing a series of evaporation procedures outside of a fume hood using a general-purpose electric pump and a roto-evaporator that had no exhaust equipment. In an effort to make the solvent recovery more efficient, the student applied a vacuum to the condenser tower but quickly turned the pump off because the vacuum was too strong. By that time, the pump exhaust had already formed an explosive mixture of the acetone and ether vapors which ignited when the power shut-off switch was activated, resulting in...