Contaminated Systems Guidance Manual
INTRODUCTION
Laboratories present an unfamiliar environment for many employees who are not directly engaged in research or teaching. Support staff employees and contractors whose job responsibilities require them to work in these areas must communicate with laboratory occupants before beginning work to avoid creating a situation that may be hazardous to one or both parties. Advance planning of projects and effective communication will help to ensure that everyone involved understands all the potential implications of the work.
The laboratory environment contains many "systems." Some examples include the local exhaust ventilation system (fume hood and associated equipment), vacuum systems, or neutralization systems. These systems come into contact with chemical, biological, and radioactive agents. When these systems require maintenance or repair, support staff and/or contractors can be exposed to residual materials in these "Contaminated Systems."
This document is intended to provide guidance to facilities personnel, support staff, and laboratory occupants when maintenance, repair, renovation, or construction activities must take place in a lab. This document outlines the responsibilities of all affected parties and generalized safety procedures to be followed by affected parties before, during, and after work commences. This document also contains standard operating procedures (SOPs) for working safely when working on specific laboratory systems.
SCOPE
These guidelines apply to any maintenance, repair, renovation, or construction activities that may impact laboratory operations or create a potentially hazardous work environment for support staff or outside contractors. These activities can be broken into several major categories. (The examples provided for each category are intended to be demonstrative but not all-inclusive):
- Preventive maintenance, repair, or other service in the laboratory
- Replacing sinks or associated piping
- Servicing traps
- Servicing the fume hood or biosafety cabinets
- Changing or replacing UV bulbs in biosafety cabinets
- Installation or servicing of cables, telephones, computers, etc.
- Preventive maintenance, repair, or other service to an item not located directly in the laboratory
- Servicing fume hood ductwork, fans, or motors
- Servicing central vacuum systems
- Servicing central neutralization systems
- Laboratory Renovation
- Laboratory or Lab Building Demolition
A safe, healthful working environment for all parties is contingent on the actions of support staff/contractors, laboratory occupants, and the office of Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S). The role of each of these three groups is expanded below.
- Support Staff & Contractors
- Inform lab supervisors and occupants prior to beginning the work.
- Verify that the lab has removed all hazardous materials and conditions prior to starting work.
- Perform all work in a safe manner (see below).
- Advise the lab or any issues or concerns prior to starting work.
- Laboratory Occupants
- Remove chemical, biological, and safety hazards from the affected area prior to work.
- Make maintenance and service staff aware of special conditions that require extra protection (see below)
- Heed all notification and obey all restrictions on the use of areas or equipment during service, renovation, or construction activities.
- Provide any necessary technical assistance to support staff or contractors during service activities (such as clearing materials from an additional part of the lab, assisting with small spill clean-up, etc.)
- When decomissioning or moving out of a laboratory note significant potential hazards used in previous research in the area. Provide a Laboratory Decommissioning Report to the building manager.
- EH&S
- Develop guidance documents and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for working on contaminated systems (see examples ).
- Provide technical expertise on hazard identification and abatement as requested.
GENERAL SAFETY PROCEDURES
- Support Staff
- Inform lab supervisor about the type of work you will be performing, the affected work area and equipment, and the approximate duration of the work.
- Make sure the lab supervisor has removed chemical, biological and safety hazards from the affected work areas before you start. Your work area may include hoods, sinks, cabinets, benches, bench tops floors and or equipment.
- Notify the occupants of all affected areas immediately before beginning work. Post warning signs on equipment, such as sinks or hoods, which may be affected. Be sure to remove the signs when the work is finished.
- Obey all applicable lock-out/tag-out procedures.
- Working with some potentially contaminated equipment and/or surfaces such as sink traps or fume hood ductwork may require special procedures. These procedures may require radiation surveys or other hazard evaluations. They may also require use of protective equipment such as chemical resistant gloves, splash goggles and/or respirators. Always follow these procedures carefully. If consultation with the user concludes that exposure to hazardous materials may occur, contact Environmental Health and Safety as far in advance of the planned work as possible. EH&S will survey the work area and/or provide specific recommendations or precautions relating to the work. When in doubt, consult EH&S at 5-2060.
- Do not touch, move or handle containers of any chemicals and materials in a laboratory. Assume unmarked containers are holding hazardous material. Ask for assistance from lab personnel.
- If the content of any laboratory container is spilled, do not touch or attempt to clean it up. Contact the nearest lab worker and leave the area until it safe to reenter. If lab personnel are not available, leave the area (closing the door behind you), and call the University Operations Centers at 5-5560.
- Pay attention to signage and hazard warning labels. Restrict your activity to your work areas.
- Do not eat or drink while working in a laboratory. Wash your hands when you leave the lab area.
- Laboratory Occupants
- Wherever practical, active experiments should be halted during service taking place in the lab.
- Remove all chemical, biological, and safety hazards from the affected work areas prior to work.
- Clean and decontaminate all equipment, bench tops, and other lab areas with which the support and maintenance staff will reasonably contact during the activity.
- Advise workers of any potentially contaminated systems that require additional protective measures for service well in advance of the start of work. (e.g. the possibility of explosive azides in sink traps where plumbers may be cutting.)
- Survey areas where radioisotopes have been used prior to service. If contamination is found, clean the work surface until acceptable contamination levels are achieved. Any surfaces with fixed contamination must be covered and shielded to background levels. Any coverings used, (ie..plastic film, plexiglass) must be secured so that the material cannot move.
- Contact EH&S before ANY service involving fume hoods where perchloric acid has been used.
- Surfaces must be wiped down with a disinfectant if biological materials are used. For Biosafety Level 2 (BL-2) laboratories, all BL-2 materials must be placed into storage before workers enter laboratory.
- Assist workers with moving chemicals or other laboratory materials if necessary during the course of work. Workers should not be permitted to move, handle, or touch laboratory materials (chemical, biological, or radiological agents.)
- Provide assistance in the event of a chemical spill in the lab during the course of work. Assistance includes cleaning up small-scale spills or contacting the appropriate emergency contacts for larger spills.
SPECIFIC PROCEDURES
Specific guideline documents have been developed for the following topic areas. Click on the links below to navigate directly to the topic of choice.
- Maintenance of Neutralizing Sumps (Limestone Chip Tanks)
- Guidelines for Work on Contaminated Local Exhaust Systems
- Working on Contaminated Laboratory Vacuum Systems
- Changing Fluorescent Light Tubes in Chemical Fume Hoods
- Replacing UV Light Tubes in Biological Safety Cabinets
- Laboratory Decommissioning Form
