Last Revised: April 19, 2024
Revision 4/2024
A Hazard Control Plan (HCP) is a standard operating procedure for a specific process performed in your laboratory or department. The HCP describes the hazardous materials or equipment in use and details the controls that will be put in place to minimize risk of exposure, injury, and other incidents. While the HCP may also include experimental procedures, its purpose is primarily to document the hazards and controls for the process. An HCP is typically written for procedures with particularly high hazards or when new hazards are introduced for the first time. A hazard assessment must be repeated and the HCP amended whenever changes are made to the process.
When is a Hazard Control Plan Required?
Anyone can complete the HCP, but the completed plan must be reviewed by the supervising PI.
An HCP should be written:
- For all hazardous (flammable, toxic, oxidizing, corrosive) compressed gases, explosives compounds, and/or pyrophoric materials
- Whenever a new hazard type is introduced in your work
- When the hazards of a procedure are unknown
- When the hazards of a task are considered particularly high.
- Before the hazardous task is performed for the first time.
Below are some examples of high-hazard situations involving chemical use. (From 2020 ACS Style Guide Chapter on Safety)
- Elevated pressure or temperature where apparatus or conditions could reasonably lead to a fire, explosion or loss of containment
- Oxygen at greater than 25% or oxygen/fuel mixtures which are ignitable
- Compounds with C:N ratio less than 5 carbons per nitrogen
- Oxidations of organic molecules, particularly at elevated temperature and/or gram scale or greater
- Processes with high exothermicity that could lead to run-away reaction
- Processes in which the energetics of scalability are insufficiently defined or require special cooling
- The addition of complexity (e.g. biological pathogens, nanoparticles, etc.) into the research.
Use the template below or contact EHRS to request a review of your existing SOP for use as a Hazard Control Plan.
Important: Click on the file and save it to your computer before editing or else changes may be lost.
Submit your completed HCP to ehrslaba@ehrs.upenn.edu. An EHRS staff member will review it for completeness and upload it to your lab's documents in BioRAFT.