Laboratories and workshops safety risk management process

Where a laboratory or workshop has hazards that have the potential to cause harm to health and safety, the manager of the facility must use a risk management process to help manage any risks:

Step 1: Identify the hazard

Consider if the facility has any hazards listed in the hazard table.

Inspections

Due to greater potential level of risk posed by the hazards present in labs and workshops, inspections should be carried out more frequently than that used for offices and general work ares, with inspections to occur at least once every six months.

Refer to the High Risk Hazard Programs - High Risk Facilities and Work Areas section of the operational safety and wellbeing plans for your faculty or unit for the title of the person or work group with responsibility for these inspections, and the timeframe in which to perform the inspection.

Checklist

Inspections should be carried out and recorded using the:

• Lab and workshop safety inspection checklist (PDF, 75 kB)

Step 2: Assess risk

A health and safety risk assessment must be conducted on all hazardous activities within hazardous areas.

• EHS risk assessment - for facility activities ('high-risk' facilities e.g. laboratory or workshop) form (doc, 102kB), or
• Online Risk Register.

Hard copies of risk assessments produced by either method must be kept easily accessible in the laboratory or workshop.

Where hazardous chemicals are used, a chemical risk assessment must be recorded online using the:
Online Chemical Inventory Database

Step 3: Controlling the risk

Risk control strategies will be in addition to those implemented directly in to manage teaching and research risks, which will have been identified separately.

Risk control strategies that are common in laboratories and workshops:

• Hazard information posters

  Laboratories and workshops are considered hazardous areas and thus should display a hazard information poster at the entrance of the facility. This is to inform anyone entering the area of the hazards present and the safety precautions required to enter and work in the area safely.

• Laboratory, workshop and chemical stores, health and safety inspection checklist

  Conducting a inspection of all laboratories and workshops at least annually is a mandatory feature of UTS operational safety and wellbeing plans. Each plan lists the staff member(s) allocated the responsibility for helping to co-ordinate and conduct this annual inspection.

  Inspections are carried out using the Lab and workshop safety inspection checklist (PDF, 68 kB).

• Accreditation programs

  Persons working in high-risk facilities should be accredited. This means they are provided with the necessary information, supervision and training to conduct work safely and that a record of this is kept.

  There is further information on accreditation programs for laboratories and workshops.

• Chemwatch

  Chemwatch is an online database of chemical safety information accessible to all UTS staff and students.

• Dangerous goods classes

  Refer to the list of information on all classes of dangerous goods in the Australian Dangerous Goods Code.

• Personal protective equipment

  Personal protective equipment includes gloves, lab coat, respirator, face shield and hearing protection, used to control exposure to various hazards.

• Hazardous waste disposal

  If your laboratory or workshop produces hazardous waste then you should be familiar with, and implement, the UTS hazardous waste disposal process.