Divisional Safety Handbook The Safety Co-ordinator is Mr Paul Phillips: Paul.Phillips@glasgow.ac.uk; Ext 4625. The Chief Technician in this Division is Mr Paul Paterson: Paul.Paterson@glasgow.ac.uk; Ext 3924. The Senior Technician in the Bower building is Mr Craig Carr: Craig.Carr@glasgow.ac.uk; Ext 5081. 1 Contents 1.1 Door Entry 5.1 Disposal and Recycling 5.1.1 Chemicals and Solvents 5.1.2 Fridge/Freezer 5.1.3 Disposal of old IT equipment 5.1.4 Radioactive waste 5.1.5 Classification of Radiation Areas 5.1.6 Disposal of Sharps 6.1 Electrical Safety 6.1.1 Electrical Safety PAT Testing 7.1 Fieldwork Safety 7.1.1 Arrangements for the Booking and Use of the MVLS Vehicles 7.1.2 Advice to Drivers 7.1.3 Appendix 1 7.1.4 Appendix 2 7.1.5 Road Worthiness 9.1 Use of Equipment 10.1 Manual Handling 10.1.1 Manual handling equipment 10.1.2 MVLS Handymen 1.1 Door Entry Request for main door entry cards should be made to John Craig, J.W.Craig@bio.gla.ac.uk, using the completed key/card request form. Keys for offices and labs within the Davidson building and Wolfson Link building should be made to Tom Carr, Tom.Carr@bio.gla.ac.uk. Please return all surplus keys and cards to them. 2 5.1 Disposal and Recycling DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) Duty of Care is a law which says that you must take all reasonable steps to keep waste safe and secure and that you must prevent it causing pollution or harming anyone. In MVLS buildings all non-hazardous waste is disposed via bins emptied by cleaners. Only black bin bags are used for non-hazardous waste. Non-hazardous waste items that are too large for bins in labs or offices should be put securely into the larger bins outside the building. In particular, packaging and bulky items should be made as flat as possible. Disposal of old computing equipment Computers and peripheral computing equipment cannot be thrown out with general waste, but must be collected by one of the University's approved suppliers, and a full record kept of its details and when it was disposed. The safety co-ordinator or chief technician should know the location in your building for uplift by the external contractors. There is a charge for this service. Please ensure that the PAT test sticker is removed prior to uplift from your lab and forwarded to either Alison Neill or John McDougall so that the PAT/asset database can be updated. Broken glass Each laboratory should have a clearly-labelled deposit point for clean broken glass. Microbiologically contaminated glass should be autoclaved prior to disposal. All bags sent for autoclave disposal must be double bagged as this helps prevent tearing and leakage from the bags, which may be a hazard to the handlers. Re-usable glassware and plasticware Small items should be fully immersed in disinfectant solution. Large glassware should be filled with disinfectant. Pasteur pipettes should be filled with disinfectant before removal of the teat. Heavily contaminated glassware may be autoclaved, but do not leave disinfectant in any item prior to autoclaving. General contaminated plastic waste should be placed directly into waste disposal bags. All plastics which are, or may be, contaminated with a microorganism or the molecular products of a genetic modification procedure must be autoclaved prior to disposal. Plastics used only for biochemical work should be put into a sealed bag before being included with nonhazardous waste. All bags sent for autoclave disposal must be double bagged as this helps prevent tearing and leakage from the bags, which may be a hazard to the handlers. Please ensure that all waste from your laboratory intended for the autoclave is double-bagged. Sharp blades and needles Theses must be discarded into a CinBin. Full cinbins must be sealed, labelled and disposed of as clinical waste. Arrangements for uplift are available from your chief technician or safety co-ordinator in each building. 3 Disposal of fridges and freezers New controls on ozone depleting substances require the disposal of waste fridges and refrigeration equipment in an environmentally sound manner. Fridges that do not contain CFCs do not require special uplift, and should therefore be disposed by uplift from MVLS handymen or Estates and Buildings. Fridges/freezers containing CFCS can be uplifted by CCL North for disposal (cost currently £15). To arrange uplift, remove any asset stickers, write your name and project code on the item and ask Alison Neill to arrange for uplift. You can alternatively arrange with the supplier to uplift (eg, Comet) when delivering a new one (similar cost). Please ensure that the PAT test sticker is removed prior to uplift from your lab and forwarded to either Alison Neill or John McDougall so that the PAT/asset database can be updated. Paper Recycling The University recycling policy requires all offices and writing up areas to use paper and plastics recycling waste boxes for all paper and non-contaminated plastics. New boxes are available on request to Alison Neill, and cleaning staff routinely empty them. 4