Safety

Submit a Chemistry Incident Report Online:  Chemistry Incident Report

Required Safety Training

Anyone who wishes to participate in research in the UW-Madison Department of Chemistry must first complete appropriate safety training. This training may include:

  1. Chemistry Department in-person or online safety training
  2. In-person training offered by UW-Madison Environment, Health & Safety (EH&S)
  3. Lab-specific safety training conducted by your research group’s Chemical Hygiene Officer (CHO), your principal investigator (PI), and/or a designated graduate student or postdoc

Talk to your PI and CHO to find out what safety training is required in your research group.

Safety Training

Safety Forms

Special Safety Topics

Lessons Learned at UW-Madison

Resources from Other Universities

Environmental Health & Safety Training Links

LIFE-THREATENING

Emergency cross

Call 911 from any phone

NON LIFE-THREATENING

university police crest

Call campus police:
(608) 264-2677

A Department of Chemistry incident report MUST be filled out when any safety incident, a near miss, or an unsafe situation occurs.

SUBMIT AN INCIDENT REPORT

 

BUILDING REPAIRS

Call Physical Plant:
(608) 263-3333
After hours, press zero to talk to a live operator.

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

View SOP documents

View internal SOP documents

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Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

When entering any lab in the UW-Madison Chemistry Building, individuals must wear the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) designated for that lab. Individuals entering any research or teaching lab in the Chemistry Building must wear protective eyewear such as lab goggles or lab glasses; closed-toe shoes; and appropriate clothing. The individual in charge of the lab (e.g., principal investigator or lab director) determines the PPE required for each lab.

Download: SOP: Personal Protective Equipment

Safety Training

Anyone who wishes to participate in research in the UW-Madison Department of Chemistry and/or the Chemistry Building (including faculty, staff, and students) must first complete appropriate safety training. This training may include:

  1. Chemistry Department in-person or online safety training;
  2. In-person training offered by UW-Madison Environment, Health & Safety (EH&S);
  3. Lab-specific safety training conducted by the research group’s Chemical Hygiene Officer (CHO), the principal investigator (PI), and/or a graduate student or postdoc designated by the PI.

New researchers must talk to their PI and CHO to find out what safety training is required in the research group they are joining.

Download: SOP: Safety Training

Transporting Chemicals

Secondary containers

When transporting chemicals within the UW-Madison Chemistry Building or from the Chemistry Building to another location, a secondary container must be used to hold the original container at all times. Acceptable secondary containers will be able to contain all of the materials in the event of a spill or breakage of the original container. When purchasing chemicals from the Department of Chemistry Research Storeroom, individuals will not be permitted to leave the Storeroom without a secondary container.

Transporting chemicals in public spaces

Hazardous chemicals must never be left unattended in public spaces during transport. Individuals transporting chemicals through public spaces must be familiar with the material’s hazards and know what to do in case of a spill.

Use of elevators

When transporting chemicals between floors in the Chemistry Building, individuals must use the freight elevator whenever possible. If the freight elevator is unavailable or impractical to use, individuals may use regular elevators when they are not crowded. Stairs should only be used if elevators are unavailable.

Personal protective equipment (PPE)

Wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) when transporting chemicals. Protective eyewear and lab coats should be worn if transporting hazardous chemicals. Keep gloves ready in a lab coat pocket during transport but do not wear gloves while transporting chemicals through public spaces and opening doors.

Download: SOP: Transporting Chemicals

Pyrophoric Chemical Manipulation

Prior to beginning your experiment, read the pdf document above and complete the checklist for working with pyrophoric chemicals detailed in the document.

Download: SOP: Pyrophoric Chemical Manipulation

Base Bath

Read this standard operating procedure on preparation, use and disposal of base baths.

SOP: Base Baths

Prescription Safety Glasses

Prescription safety glasses are provided by the department to those who need them. To obtain prescription safety glasses, follow these steps:

  1. Obtain a current valid eyeglasses prescription from your eye doctor. The department does not pay for eye exams.
  2. To order prescription safety glasses, complete the application and process steps listed on Occupational Medicine’s PPE page. On the Eyewear Application, leave the Billing information blank, and list Char Horsfall (chorsfall@wisc.edu) as the financial contact.

Pistoia Alliance Chemical Safety Library

The Pistoia Alliance Chemical Safety Library (CSL) provides crowd-sourced data on hazardous reactions, used to alert scientists to potentially dangerous experiments.

Bretherick’s Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards

Bretherick’s Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards, Eighth Edition presents the latest updates on the unexpected, but predictable, loss of containment and explosion hazards from chemicals and their admixtures and actual accidents. The extensively cross-referenced book enables readers to avoid explosion and loss of containment of chemicals.

Photography/Video Policy

  1. For any photo or video in a research or teaching laboratory in the Chemistry Building, as well as any time one is working with chemicals, all people in the photos/videos must wear safety goggles or safety glasses and appropriate personal protective equipment.
  2. All photographers and videographers must wear safety goggles or safety glasses and appropriate personal protective equipment while shooting/filming in a Chemistry Building research or teaching laboratory.
  3. The photographer/videographer must have permission from the corresponding faculty principal investigator to shoot/film in their laboratories. When filming in a teaching laboratory, the photographer/videographer must have permission from the corresponding laboratory director.
  4. Photographers and videographers must ask principal investigators, instructors, or Chemical Hygeine Officers to assess the area so that private, embargoed, or proprietary information is not captured in the image or video.

Safety Committee Contacts

John F. Berry

Position title: Lester R. McNall Professor of Chemistry

Email: berry@chem.wisc.edu

Phone: 608.262.7534

Heike Hofstetter

Position title: Director NMR Lab - CIC

Email: hofstetter@chem.wisc.edu

Phone: 608.262.7536

Tilak Chandra

Position title: Chemical Safety Specialist

Email: tilak.chandra@wisc.edu

Phone: 608.622.9761

Jeff Nielsen

Position title: Building Manager

Email: jnielsen@chem.wisc.edu

Phone: 608.712.9145

Submit an Incident Report

Incident Report

An incident report must be filled out whenever a safety incident, a near miss, or an unsafe situation occurs. Please complete all fields. Use "N/A" if a field does not apply to your circumstance.

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