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Autoclave Safety Guidelines

Oven and Dryer Safety Guidelines

A near miss is a potential hazard or incident that has not resulted in any personal injury, illness, or damage. Unsafe working conditions, unsafe employee work habits, improper use of equipment, and use of malfunctioning equipment have the potential to cause work related injuries. It is everyone’s responsibility to report and/or make the necessary corrections, immediately, to the unsafe environment and/or practice.

This Near Miss Reporting System is a voluntary, confidential, non-punitive, and secure reporting system. It has been created with the goal of improving safety at Boston University (BU) and Boston Medical Center (BMC). Submitted reports will be reviewed by Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) staff. You may submit reports anonymously if desired. As appropriate, near misses will be investigated to the extent possible with findings and any corrective actions being posted on the EHS website for other BU and BMC community members to use as a learning tool.

The Near Miss Reporting Form can be found at http://www.bu.edu/ehs/near-miss/.

Due to planned system upgrades, RIMS will be unavailable the evening of 5/29. RIMS will return online the morning of 5/30. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Please contact us with any questions you might have.

-The RIMS Team

The Lab Safe Newsletter for November 2011 is now available online.

Topics include:

• Laboratory Safety Coordinator
• Top Five Areas For Improvement in the Laboratory
• Welcome Sharon Rose
• Fire and General Safety Inspection
• Before beginning wok in the lab, you should note the following
• Training Corner

The Medical Physics and Radiation Safety Division is excited to announce that the laser safety training course is now available to take online through RIMS.  For more information about this course, login to RIMS and view the course description.

New online training modules are now available in Blackboard Vista. These modules are an alternative to the classroom Laboratory Safety Training. The training is broken down into modules so that you only have to take modules pertaining to your work and the type of lab you work in. The following modules are currently available:

• Universal Lab Safety Training
• Biosafety Level 1 and 2 Training
• Chemical Safety Training
• Bloodborne Pathogen Training
• PI Training Module
• LSC Training Module

To log into these training modules, log into your RIMS account and choose “Take the course” from any of the above trainings.  To obtain a RIMS Training Profile, please follow the instructions on the RIMS Training Profile Registration page.

For more information, please see the Online Laboratory Safety Training Module Introduction and Tutorial.

The Lab Safe Newsletter for July 2011 is now available online.

Topics include:

• Lab Safety Coordinators
• Lab Safety Coordinator Toolkit
• Summer Students
• Eye Protection
• Dressing for Safety

The LSC Toolkit for Lab Safety Coordinators hosts guidance (such as the New Lab Personnel Guide to help LSCs manage new personnel), ideas on how to train, and links to helpful sites in an effort to help Lab Safety Coordinators succeed in their roles.  The LSC Toolkit can be found on the main EHS page under “Programs.”  Get started today and make sure to use the LSC Suggestion Box or contact your Department Safety Advisor in our Directory with any questions or comments about the toolkit.

We’d also like to take this opportunity to thank the several LSCs who helped us develop the Toolkit.

BSL-3, Select Agent, Francisella Tularensis (an Agent-Specific training), and Recombinant DNA are the topics of 4 new online training courses available through RIMS.  All PIs who work with rDNA are required to take the Recombinant DNA training.