MyChem

UW personnel who use chemicals or chemical-containing products at any UW owned or leased facility are required to maintain chemical inventories in MyChem, the UW’s chemical tracking system.

Contact

MyChem Contact

(206) 616-4046

Last Updated: March 14, 2022

UW personnel who use chemicals or chemical-containing products at any UW owned or leased facility are required to maintain chemical inventories in MyChem, the UW’s chemical tracking system.

Access MyChem

Visit the MyChem website and enter your UW NetID and password.

Click the Person menu link:

  1. Fill in the Person Details fields.
  2. If you are a principal investigator or responsible party, select "PI" or "RP" as your role.
  3. If you are not a principal investigator or responsible party, select "Contact" or "Other" as your role. Enter the UWNetID of the principal investigator or responsible party who must respond to an email confirmation.
  4. Click Add.

MyChem features

Waste collection

Generate a chemical waste collection request.

Caution and warning signs

Create a caution sign for posting at entrances.

Recycle chemicals

Search the Chemical Exchange to find or offer unused chemicals.

Safety data sheets

Locate hazard information via inventory reports and SDSs.

Particularly hazardous chemicals

Particularly hazardous chemicals are identified in MyChem.

About

Chemical inventories are linked to a principal investigator (PI) or supervisor, other area contacts, and contain Safety Data Sheets (SDSs). They help the University comply with federal, state and local hazardous material regulations, including Hazardous Material Storage and Use Permits, Hazard Communication, Community Right-To-Know and the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standard. 

Frequently asked questions

Informational text with instructions is available on the individual pages of the MyChem website. You can also email mychem@uw.edu with questions or call 206.616.4046 for assistance. Classroom computer training is available to groups upon request. Please call 206.543.7201 to request classroom training.

Inventory owners and area contacts can generate chemical waste disposal requests in MyChem. You can:

  • Select chemicals from your inventory 
  • Add chemicals to the waste list that were not in your inventory
  • Add process waste or a mixture of chemicals in a carboy or drum
  • Add spill debris or other mixtures of debris and chemical

1. From the inventory page, select the Waste Collection button. You'll see your inventory appear.

2. If the items for disposal are in your chemical inventory, select them using the checkboxes and then Save List. The next page is a list of the chemicals you want collected. Edit the list as needed. You can remove or add additional chemical waste before submitting the final list to EH&S via the Submit Report to EH&S button.

3. If the items are not in your inventory or not yet on your waste list, use the Add New Waste Chemical button to make additions to the list of waste. You will go through the process of searching for each chemical in the container, indicating a percentage of each. When all chemicals in the container add up to 100%, you will be asked for container information including type and volume/weight information. Save to get the new waste container added to your list. The next page displays the list of waste that you want collected. Edit and add to the list before submitting the report to EH&S.

3. The Add Comment button allows you to add a note about the specific location of the waste or access to the area. Do this step before submitting the report to EH&S.

4. Once a report has been submitted, use the View Past Reports button to view it. If the waste is consistently generated, consider naming the report, so you easily reuse it for future waste collection requests. Use the Recreate List button to call-up a previously submitted waste list for edits and re-submission.

If you don’t have a UWNetID, you can request one from UW-IT or call 206.221.5000.

People working on campus who are not University employees (e.g., volunteers, high school students, summer interns) will need to have a UW employee sponsor their UWNetID. 

Yes, to access safety data sheets, you must log into MyChem with your UWNetID.

Refer to the instructions on the Chemical Exchange webpage.

  1. Use the inventory worksheet in the MyChem Guide (accessible in MyChem) to gather information, including chemical name, manufacturer, container type, quantity and physical state.

  2. When adding chemicals to the inventory, begin by searching the database to see if the chemical is already in the MyChem SDS library. If you find the chemical in the search results, select it and finish the entry process. If don’t find the chemical in the search results, click on Chemical Not Found and finish the entry process. If the chemical is not found, please attach an electronic copy of the vendor’s SDS in the entry process.

  3. Review and update inventories and contacts annually and whenever there are significant changes to the inventory.

When adding the chemical to your inventory, select the Browse button to locate the SDS file on your computer and select it. The SDS file is now attached to your chemical inventory and a copy was emailed to EH&S for permanent replacement in the SDS library.

EH&S has a process to flag particularly hazardous substances (PHS) in MyChem. When you view your chemical inventory look for the REG (regulatory) column. You'll find that PHS chemicals are flagged with a “P”.

You may also see chemicals flagged with an “E” for an EH&S reportable chemical. EH&S reports these chemicals annually in a Tier II report to the Department of Ecology per the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.

Certain chemicals may be flagged with a “B” and that means they are both particularly hazardous and reportable by EH&S.

Review the criteria used by EH&S to designate a chemical as a PHS and learn more about the requirements for working with particularly hazardous substances.

 

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