Environmental Health and Safety

The University of Texas at Tyler offers students a myriad of opportunities for learning.  Laboratories are one exciting way to further your education.  Composed of hands-on applied learning, students can receive real world experience inside modern laboratories and art studios on campus.  These spaces can come with a certain amount of risk.  The risk varies greatly depending the contents and/or amounts being handled, knowledge of handling procedures and on the amount of lab patron experience.  The differences can range from department to department, even lab to lab!  It is therefore prudent to set a standard to create a foundation for safe and effective use of this educational time.  

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                                       Laboratory Safety Policy

EH&S along with faculty and staff from across the campus have created a laboratory safety policy.  The policy comes about through a rigorous peer-review process, risk assessments of individual laboratories (contact EH&S for more info on the risk assessment), and common practice and doctrine across the scientific spectrum.  This policy applies to all UT Tyler owned, leased or operated facilities.  The program describes the basic do's and don'ts inside all labs, shops and studios within these spaces.  The policy can be found here:

Laboratory Safety Policy

The University of Texas at Tyler also has an additional Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Texas Department of Public Safety and Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.  The guidance pertains to controlled substances and glassware.  All UT Tyler patrons are required to obide by this MOU.  The MOU can be found here:

UT Tyler laboratory MOU

The Laboratory Safety Policy also includes addenda to safety programs for many specialized areas on campus including the different laboratories, shops and art studios.  These programs can be found here: 

• Chemical Hygiene Program - required by the State of Texas, this robust program provides details on handling chemicals and general Chemistry lab safety.

• Biosafety Program - required by Universities receiving federal funds for research, this program features safety measures to aid in the safe practices unique to biology labs.  This program follows BMBL guidelines for work inside biology, microbiology and molecular biology laboratories.

• Laser Safety Program - required by the State of Texas, this program guides the use of any high powered lasers (non-ionizing radiation) within UT Tyler laboratories.  Special practices are required to work in these labs.

• Radiation Safety Program - required by the State of Texas, information on ionizing radiation safety, laws, regulations and specific programs governing X-rays and radioactive materials can be found here.

                                     University Wide Programs:

Specific programs mentioned in the Laboratory Safety Policy apply to all laboratories, shops and studios across campus.

• Hazard Communication Program - all State Employees must be made aware of hazards in their work space.  This comprehensive program describes how to identify laboratory and studio hazards on UT Tyler campuses.

• Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee - oversees all personnel involved with animal use inside laboratories.

  • Personnel in these labs must complete the Occupational Health Program Form found at the  Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee page and send the completed form to the address provided.

• Institutional Review Board - laboratory experiments or demonstrations that involve humans must contact the IRB.

• Institutional Biosafety Committee - all experiments involving recombinant DNA must contact the IBC.

• Exposure Control Program - identifies blood-borne pathogens, exposure routes and risk mitigation procedures.

• Job Hazard Analysis - individual laboratory and hazardous tasks are broken down to ensure safety is involved in each step of a protocol. 
  
  

• Laboratory Decommissioning Program - if laboratory spaces change Principle Investigators or have renovations of more than 20% the owning departments are required to conduct a laboratory decommissioning for that room.  You will need to fill out the following form and send the form to safety@uttyler.edu

  • Fillable Faculty Staff Laboratory Decommissioning Form

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                                      Chemical Safety Information

• CampusOptics SDS Search - this will provide you with the most up to date handling information on any chemical on campus. 

• Laboratory glove chemical comparability guide - provides information on which gloves to use for specific lab work.
  
  
• Laboratory Ergonomics Guide - references the most common ergonomic issues lab employees face.