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Lab Safety
Your safety in our lab is our top priority, and you have the right to know the chemicals present in our lab, their risks, and the training and skills to work with anything in the lab.
Reporting your Safety Trainings
- URI Initial Lab Safety
- CITI Trainings
- PPP Chemical and Waste Training
- PPP Lab Safety Walkthrough and Checklist
- Register here for Initial URI Lab Safety Online training. Select "Initial: Lab Safety and Hazardous Waste Management" from the dropdown.
- Every 12 months you need to complete "Refresher: Prudent Practices in Lab and Hazardous Waste Management" and can register on the same site.
- These trainings will become available on BrightSpace after you Register and URI OHS adds them for you.
- Follow these guidelines for registering/getting a login. Note that it's University of Rhode Island you type in, without the 'The'.
- Go to My Courses by clicking on the top bar
- Click View Courses next to University of Rhode Island
- Scroll to the bottom to Learner Tools for University of Rhode Island and select Add a Course
- In Question 2, select RCR for Biomedical Researchers
- In Question 10, select Laboratory Chemical Safety
- You can also select Compressed Gases Safety to do separately from the Lab Chemical Safety, if you don't do it separately, they will include it in the general training
- Scroll to the bottom and select submit
CITI RCR, Responsible Conduct of Research
- This will also take you some time to complete so give yourself a good amount of time for it
- Not all of the content is completely relevant to our labs, but the concepts of conducting responsible research are CRUCIAL
- Understanding how to conduct research responsibly will make you and the lab members around you better scientists and colleagues
- This will take 2 hours to complete, at least, please give yourself adequate time/go back to modules you haven't completed
- I would suggest selecting to take Classic mode, where everything is text for you to read. Audio/visual mode is entirely videos, which may take you longer
- The modules on "Transporting Hazardous Chemicals" and "Chemical Security" are not required. We do not ship hazardous chemicals, and we do not have concerns about security in our lab. You still have to take them to complete the certification, but if you get 0/0 on the quiz that's no big deal
- The most important thing is that you read/listen to the training and understand the information. Some of the quiz questions are very specific on legal things or government departments. Those are not as important as understanding lab, chemical, and waste safety. Getting 100% on each quiz is not required, but please take the time to read through this fully, it will make you a better scientist!
- This can be done separately if you would like, or it is included in the Lab Chemical Safety as the final module
- If you have done the Lab Chemical Safety, and you have also signed up for this, it will show as "completed already" when you try to go to it through the portal
- If you do it before you do the Lab Chemical Safety, then it will be one less module to do in that one
When you are done with a training, Click access your completion records. Then select view/print completion report. Make sure you select the report option so scores are reported. Save this report and use it to upload to the PPP Training google form.
PPP Chemical and Waste Training
- PPP Chemical and Waste Training Link
- This is specifics on chemicals in our lab, where they are, and how to dispose of things, and what to do in emergencies
- PLEASE REFERENCE THIS DOCUMENT OFTEN!!! It has the links to all the chemicals in the lab, links to necessary EHS info, pictograms, forms to fill out if there is a chemical exposure, etc
- This is where a list of all very dangerous chemicals in our lab is. It is your right as an employee to know what hazardous chemicals are in your workplace
- Respond to the questions at the end of the document and record them as a doc or a PDF. Upload that to the PPP Lab Training Google Form
PPP Lab Safety Walkthrough and Checklist
- This walks you through where all the PPE, safety showers, first aid, SDS, chemicals, SSAs, etc. are in the lab
- The student mentoring you/PI, or senior lab member will do this with you on your first day coming into the lab
- Checklist
- Upload the completed checklist to the PPP Lab Training Google Form
If you are going to use our LN2 tanks, you MUST go through an extra training online, as well as have a senior lab member go through using the tank with you the first time you use it. If you are using dry shippers, you must have someone fill it with you the first time you are working with one.
Go through the PPP Specific Liquid Nitrogen Safety, Training, and Facts File, and record your answers to the questions in a doc or PDF and attach to the PPP Training Google Form
This training has information about how we use liquid nitrogen in our lab, what materials we have here to work with it, and how to use the specific tanks we get. This is meant to be a safety training as well as a guide on how to use our tanks.
You also must get an 80 or 100% grade on the Compressed Gas Safety section of the CITI training to be cleared to work with LN2.
If you are going to work with Carbon Nano Tubes (CNTs) in URI engineering, you MUST go through Working Safely with Nanomaterials Training Register Here CNT Safety Guidelines
- Upload the completion acknowledgement to the PPP Lab Training Google Form
Safety Trainings Reporting Upload all completed trainings here
Solid Chemicals
Liquid Chemicals
Flammable Cabinet
Acid Cabinet
If you fill your hazardous waste container, please request the pickup yourself or work with the Lab Captains. Pick ups are only once every two weeks on Thursdays.
If you have questions about if your protocol/procedure generates a hazardous waste first look at the documents that are available with the components. All kits have an SDS (safety data sheet) even if there isn't anything hazardous in them, these should be available on the website where they are from. Additionally, you could just google components to look for SDSs. You should also talk to Dr. Putnam about generating hazardous wastes. You also need to pay attention to the container you put the waste in, some chemicals cannot be stored plastic containers.
The URI Environmental Health and Safety staff are also very responsive over email : Megan Dyer (mdyer@uri.edu), Nancy Paterson (nancy_paterson@uri.edu), Abigail Bernier (akbernier@uri.edu) General email (srm@etal.uri.edu).