Biosafety

On February 16, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) to amend the Hazard Communication Standard (HCS). The current HCS was last updated in 2012 to align the standard with the third revision of the United Nations (UN) Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS). The proposed changes are to update the HCS to align it with the seventh revised edition of the GHS.

Highlights of the proposed changes include:

Definitions

• Updates to three existing definitions (exposure/exposed, hazardous chemical, physical hazard)
• Addition of eight new definitions (bulk shipment, combustible dust, gas, liquid, solid, immediate outer package, physician or other licensed health-care professional (PLHCP), and released for shipment)

Hazard Classification

• Clarification that the hazard classification has to consider both normal considerations of use and foreseeable emergencies
• Additional requirements that the hazard classification must include any hazards associated with a change in the chemical’s physical form or […]
  

Section 312 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) describes reporting requirements for facilities that possess chemicals above established reporting thresholds. For those facilities subject to reporting, submission of a Tier II Emergency and Hazardous Chemical Inventory Form to the State Emergency Response Commission (SERC), Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC), and local Fire Department is required by March 1^st of every year for the previous calendar year.

These reporting requirements allow state and local emergency response and planning committees to be aware of the hazardous materials present within their communities and to prepare for emergency responses.

Which facilities have to report?

Facilities storing a hazardous chemical that is an Extremely Hazardous Substances (EHS) in an amount equal to or greater than 500 pounds or above the Threshold Planning Quantity (TPQ), whichever is lower, are required to submit Tier II reports. EHS and TPQs can be found in 40 CFR part 355 Appendix B and the EPA’s […]

OSHA Form 300A, Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses, is used to summarize the recordable injuries and illnesses for the previous year and includes the number of days work was lost or restricted, and the types of injuries and illnesses that occurred.

Information about the company, including the average number of employees and total hours worked by all employees, must also be recorded.

Form 300A must be posted from February 1 through April 30 each year.  If no recordable incidents or illnesses occurred during the previous year, the form must still be completed and posted reflecting zero recordable cases. The information in Form 300A is based on information recorded in OSHA Form 300, Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses. However, certain employers are exempt from these reporting requirements.

Employers with 10 or fewer employees are not required to prepare Form 300 or Form 300A. In addition, only industries within certain North American Industrial Classification (NAICS) codes are […]

In a November 17^th, 2020 Lab Advisory, the CDC announced the release of the 6^th Edition of Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL)! The BMBL has become the foundation of biosafety practice since it was first published in 1984. Historically, the information in this publication has been advisory in nature although some legislation and regulations, in particular local recombinant DNA ordinances, have made compliance with the guidance provided mandatory. The previous version of the BMBL (5^th Edition) was published in December 2009.

So what’s different about the 6^th Edition? The updated BMBL is more detailed in many sections and has increased in length by ~160 pages! For example, the section describing Standard Microbiological Practices (Section IV) for BL1 and BL2 labs now includes a detailed description of content requirements for a written Biosafety Manual.

In addition, there is a new requirement that long hair be restrained so that it cannot contact hands, specimens, containers, or […]

Often companies seek to check off all of the regulatory boxes so non-compliance doesn’t interfere with their work and timelines. While this may be reasonable, regulations can be general and do not always achieve safety standards that appropriately address workplace hazards.

The OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Standard went into effect in 1991 and was updated in 2001 to incorporate the requirements of The Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act.

This Standard is an example of a sweeping and effective regulation that has significantly reduced the risk of occupational transmission of bloodborne viruses.

In this post, we’re going to focus on the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act and the changes that have been made to reduce sharps injuries. The Act itself is only four pages and lays out the problem (occupational exposure to contaminated sharps), the empirical evidence for the need to resolve it, and specifies the requirements related to sharps with engineered sharps injury protections that were added to […]