Lab Safety from Home

Last Revised: March 17, 2023

4/1/2020

By now, most of you have suspended your laboratory operations and are isolating at home.  We’d like to suggest the following learning opportunities and safety & compliance activities you can catch up on remotely, so you can return to the lab ready to dive (safely!) back into your work.

If you'd like to talk to an EHRS staff member, please feel free to email ehrs@ehrs.upenn.edu or call our main office number: 215-898-4453.

We’ll be in touch again soon with special guidance for restarting your lab operations when you return to campus.

Complete these compliance requirements in BioRAFT

PIs and Lab Safety Coordinators

  1. Review your lab’s Member List in BioRAFT and add/delete members if applicable.
  2. Review your lab’s Inspection Log to see if there are any reports in “pending resolution” status that can be finalized remotely.
  3. Confirm that your Hazard list and Chemical Hygiene Workplan have been certified by the PI within the past year.
  4. Confirm your lab’s spaces are correct in BioRAFT.  Submit this form to request changes.

All Lab members

  1. Review your lab’s Chemical Hygiene Work Plan in BioRAFT and review the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and Fact Sheets that are applicable to your lab’s work.
  2. If you work with human cell lines or other human source material, review your lab’s Exposure Control Plan (ECP) found in the documents section of your lab’s BioRAFT profile. If your lab does not have an ECP but would like to start working with human source material, follow the guidelines outlined here to develop an ECP for your lab.
  3. Brush up on the use of ChemTracker inventory by reviewing the updated User Guide, available here.  Use the hazard filter in ChemTracker to learn what high-hazard materials are present in your lab.

Communicate about your lab’s hazards and safe practices

  1. Generate a list of topics or create slides to add a “safety moment” to future group meetings or seminars. 
  2. Check your safety training requirements in Workday Learning and complete any online courses that are due.
  3. Discuss your group’s highest hazard lab activities and write a Hazard Control Plan for those tasks.  You can also email laboratory-safety@upenn.edu to ask if there is an existing HCP can reference for your high-hazard work.

Brush up on your professional skills

  1. LinkedIn Learning (formerly lynda.com) is an online video service that provides access to hundreds of courses and tutorials taught by industry experts and leaders.  It is available to all active Penn faculty, students, and staff with a valid PennKey.  Log-in today to learn something new!  Here are some suggested courses to check out:
    • Think about risk and safety from a new perspective with:  Psychological Safety: Clear Blocks to Innovation, Collaboration, and Risk-Taking
    • Prepare yourself for the upcoming return to the lab with:  5 Ways to Control Your Time
    • Learn an engineer’s practical methods for increasing enjoyment in:   Happiness Tips
  2. Calling all ACS members! Watch the Webinar on Writing Safety Summaries for guidance on the new ACS publication requirement for including safety information in papers. (Video is accessible to non-ACS-members).

Just for fun

Catch up on your lab safety playlist: