General, Chemical & Laser Safety

The basis of the Lab Servant was formed – in retrospect – by the Safety Report System (SRS) that was developed by Delft University of Technology and tested in practice during a number of years. The SRS was included as “good practice” in the “Arbocatalogus Nederlandse universiteiten”, a policy document that describes and regulates general safety for the Dutch universities. In 2009 the SRS was awarded the European Good Practice Award for Healthy Workplaces by EU-OSHA.

The former SRS is nowadays embedded in the Lab Servant as the “Safety reports” module.

The idea behind the Safety Report is that of a “dynamic RI&E”: a Risk Inventory and Evaluation that is performed before the start of a new experiment.

In the process of preparing a Safety Report, the researcher also produces an emergency card for the safe shutdown of overnight experiments.

The researcher describes his experiment and makes a safety plan that fits the experimental set-up. All reagents, solvents, gases, equipment et cetera are evaluated by the precautionary measures taken to reduce the risks.

Via a workflow the researcher gets approval (which can be considered as a “work permit”) from an Area Supervisor and if applicable a PI.

In the process of preparing a Safety Report the researcher also produces an emergency card for the safe shutdown of overnight experiments.

To facilitate the judgment of possible hazards of chemical substances, Chemwatch data (mini MSDS, GHS symbols, hazard bars) is directly available in the Safety Report module via a web service.

The Laser safety report, which will be integrated in time with the general and chemical safety report, aims at the safe working with powerful lasers. A full description of the experimental set-up precedes the description of details like laser class, max power, wavelength, beam paths, floor plan. The safety report is evaluated by a Laser safety officer (LSO), who gives his approval when all necessary safety conditions are met.

Because different fields of research have their own requirements for a safety report (dynamic RI&E), which cannot be integrated in one overall set-up, we currently have separate set-ups for the work with genetically modified organisms (see: the Biosafety module) and for the ethical risks of research projects (see: the Research Ethics module).