The laboratory safety review program checklist has been updated. This is an effort to further streamline the checklist and reviews. There were no new findings added and findings removed included those that are best captured under other programs such as fire prevention or industrial safety programs. Lab safety professionals may still take the time to educate labs on topics such as machine guarding, but will connect with the industrial safety team instead of this resulting in a finding. Changes were approved by the Chemical Laboratory Safety Committee.

The lab safety review checklist on the lab safety website was also updated. The previous version of this checklist was a 14-page document. Lab personnel and safety coordinators often complained the document was too long to print when completing a paper self-inspection. In order to reduce the number of pages, the action plan text for each finding was removed from the paper checklist. This information can still be found and will continue to be managed on the online checklist at ehs.ucop.edu/inspect.

The program previously managed two checklists that were worded slightly differently. The self-inspection checklist was worded in the positive and a second on Inspect worded in the negative.

For example:

• Chemical containers are not clearly labeled (negative)
• Chemical containers are clearly labeled (positive)

When the program transferred from the Safety Inspection Tool (SIT) to Inspect, it allowed for more flexibility. Therefore, both checklists will now be worded in the positive. Managing two checklists creates more work and also allows for potential inconsistencies. It’s easy to forget to update all existing checklists. The changes to the Inspect checklist will take effect this Friday, April 15.

Download the updated lab safety review checklist.