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Chemical Hygiene Plan.........................
The purpose of this Chemical Hygiene Plan is to define work practices and procedures to
help ensure that faculty, staff, students, workers, and the environment are protected from
hazards associated with the handling, storage, and use of chemicals in laboratories.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Regulations (29 CFR 1900.1450)
require all employers engaged in the laboratory use of hazardous chemicals to develop
and carry out the provisions of a Chemical Hygiene Plan that is capable of protecting
employees from health hazards associated with hazardous chemicals and capable of
keeping exposures below Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs).
See Appendix A in the rear of this manual for the full text of "Occupational Exposure to
Hazardous Chemicals in Laboratories". OSHA defines a laboratory as "a workplace
where relatively small quantities of hazardous chemicals are used on a non-
production basis." Laboratories involve a greater variety of possible hazards than most
work places, and some hazards call for precautions not ordinarily encountered. None of
the labs at your place of employment are without hazards of some kind and degree.
This Chemical Hygiene Plan applies to all laboratory workers. An example of a laboratory
worker would be a university teaching assistant or a faulty member instructing an
academic lab. Your employer also has the special responsibility of administering
instructional labs with relatively inexperienced students who must be introduced to the
safety procedures necessary to conduct various laboratory operations.
A perfect example of an unsafe laboratory, cluttered and without a Chemical Hygiene
Plan. An accident is just waiting to happen.
