EHS has developed a chemical safety webpage to assist laboratories and research groups in the safe and responsible use of chemicals. This webpage includes quick access to the Institute’s Chemical Hygiene Plan, Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) templates for hazardous chemicals, a chemical storage guide, and instructions for managing chemical inventories.
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
Chemical SOPs describe how to handle a hazardous chemical safely. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s (OSHA) Hazard Communication Standard requires the use of SOPs to protect laboratory workers from hazards associated with handling highly hazardous chemicals.
SOPs are required for chemicals that meet the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS) criteria for particularly hazardous and high-risk chemicals. These chemicals require special handling and controls to keep laboratory workers safe. Before these chemicals can be purchased, EHS must approve the chemicals, which requires review of a written SOP from the laboratory. For a complete list of chemicals requiring prior approval before use, please consult this information about SOPs on the EHS webpage or Appendix A of Rensselaer’s Chemical Hygiene Plan.
EHS has created SOP templates for laboratory workers to customize for their specific laboratory activities. A general chemical template is available for use if the chemical you are purchasing is not listed.
If a chemical is ordered before an SOP has been written, EHS will contact the laboratory group with an SOP template to be completed before the chemical is approved for purchase. When ordering a chemical in OSCAR, the chemicals requiring SOPs are flagged in two different ways:
1. A yellow flag will appear next to the chemical name in the cart.
2. An icon will appear in the requisition next to the chemical name indicating the chemical is a controlled substance.
Send completed SOPs to ehs@rpi.edu for review and approval. SOPs can be submitted to EHS any time a laboratory is considering ordering a highly hazardous chemical. EHS maintains a copy of lab SOPs to approve future ordering. EHS encourages laboratory workers to plan ahead and submit SOPs to ensure approvals are in place before the chemical is needed. SOPs must be kept by the lab, either in paper form or electronically, and available for each laboratory worker to review when work with a highly hazardous chemical is necessary. Each laboratory worker must know the location of where the SOPs are stored.
Maintaining Accurate Chemical Inventories
All laboratories, research spaces and work areas that use, handle, or store hazardous chemicals must maintain an inventory of the hazardous chemicals present in their work areas per the OSHA Hazard Communication Standard. In addition to the regulatory requirement for maintaining a chemical inventory, there are many other benefits. Maintaining an accurate inventory supports safe emergency response to lab incidents, allows you to remove waste chemicals before they present serious safety hazards and costly disposals, saves money and space, and increases efficiency of lab operations.
Chemicals must be ordered through OSCAR following Procurement Services policies and procedures. Chemicals are delivered and processed through Chemical Receiving in Cogswell 221 and assigned a barcode number. Each chemical container is tracked through the chemical inventory system, Research Material Management (RMM). Principal Investigators (PIs), laboratory supervisors, and graduate students who have the need to order chemicals can be granted access to OSCAR and RMM, which enables labs to view and update their chemical inventory in RMM.
EHS implemented a chemical ordering and campus wide inventory system in 2018. Chemicals ordered after 2018 have been barcoded and added to the inventory as they arrive on campus. It is the responsibility of the laboratory to update their inventory if a chemical is moved to a different location. Chemicals purchased before 2018 are not included in the chemical inventory system and need to be barcoded and added to a lab’s inventory.
Please visit this EHS webpage for information and training materials on obtaining OSCAR and RMM access, accessing safety data sheets, viewing your lab’s chemical inventory, and adding and removing chemicals from your inventory. EHS can assist with updating your inventory and barcoding chemicals that are not currently in your inventory.
Please contact Chemical Hygiene Officer Abbey Killam at killaa@rpi.edu or 518-276-6163 if you have questions about chemical management.
