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The Environmental Health & Safety Department (EH&S) serves as the University representative and liaison to Washington State Department of Labor & Industries, Division of Occupational Safety and Health (L&I) for all campus locations, including UW Medicine, and will coordinate all activities related to an L&I investigation. EH&S will coordinate on behalf of the University with the appropriate unit and University representatives, including Human Resources Labor Relations.

Workplace falls are both common and preventable. At the UW, the category “slips/trips/falls” has been among the top three leading causes of injuries to UW personnel every year from 2018 to 2021. Falls from heights is the second-leading cause of unintentional workplace death in the U.S. 

EH&S has published an updated UW Hazardous Energy Control LOTO Program Manual with requirements for controlling hazardous energy using lockout/tagout (LOTO) to ensure employee safety and prevent injury or illness that could result during the servicing and maintenance of machines and equipment.

If your research involves the use of centrifuges, ovens/furnaces, vacuum pumps, or other laboratory equipment, the new Laboratory Equipment Maintenance webpage provides resources that can help you mitigate the hazards associated with commonly used lab equipment.

Updated July 18. 2022

Keep in mind the facemask required for working in a lab is different than the facemask you may wear outside the lab.

University units with sharps waste and human pathological waste should take note of recent changes to the University’s biohazardous waste streams.

The U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA), along with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state and local partners, are investigating a multistate outbreak of Salmonella infections linked to certain Jif peanut butter products produced at the J.M. Smucker Company facility in Lexington, Kentucky.  

As of June 30, 2022, MyChem requires users to upload a safety data sheet (SDS) when adding a new chemical to an inventory if that chemical does not currently exist in the MyChem database. Although this is not a new requirement, due to the high number of chemicals uploaded without SDSs, the MyChem system will now require an SDS when uploading chemicals. 

Personnel working on UW research vessels can now add their chemical inventories into MyChem, the University’s chemical tracking system. UW employees who use chemicals or chemical-containing products at any UW owned or leased facility are required to maintain chemical inventories in MyChem, and chemicals can include, but are not limited to, paint, compressed gas cylinders, epoxies, and fuel.

The University of Washington's Radiation Safety Committee recently approved a few changes to University requirements that affect research-related RUA permit holders, including the following: