Principal investigators (PIs) and laboratory personnel are encouraged to develop laboratory specific standard operating procedures for the hazardous chemical processes performed in their laboratories. A standard operating procedure (SOP) is a set of written instructions that describe, in detail, how to perform a laboratory process or experiment safely.
SOPs must be developed and available for laboratory operations involving the use of carcinogens, reproductive toxins (including teratogens and mutagens), and acutely toxic material. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s (OSHA) categorizes these as particularly hazardous materials and requires SOPs be available for laboratory operations involving them.
EHSS has developed SOP templates for particularly hazardous substances. PIs are encouraged to use these templates to develop lab specific SOPs if particularly hazardous substances are used in their laboratory. PIs must augment these templates with procedural and safety information specific to their laboratory’s particularly hazardous substance operations. PIs may upload completed SOPs to their My Laboratory Profile page.
Particularly hazardous substances must also be stored and used in designated (labeled) areas in the laboratory. Please contact EHSS at ehss@syr.edu to request additional primary hazard posting labels.