purpose, and use of MSDS for all chemicals, and other hazardous
materials found in the laboratory. The MSDS should be placed in
easily accessible as well as highly visible locations. Conduct
regular briefing sessions with laboratory personnel to discuss
applicability of the MSDS to various test procedures that are
performed in the laboratory.
Encourage technicians to conduct
reviews on their own to assist you in the regular update of the
MSDS.
Examples of updates are when new chemicals are acquired
for use in laboratory operations or when certain chemicals are
taken out of use.
Updates should also be done when chemical
data about particular chemicals are changed.
b.
The laboratory supervisor must incorporate the unit's
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hazardous waste and the hazardous materials management policy in
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all laboratory operations. He must identify the environment as
well as personnel risks in individual and team tasks.
Environmental pollutants are hazardous wastes and materials.
There's a difference between hazardous waste and hazardous
materials: Hazardous waste is any material which results from a
process or maintenance that has potential to harm the
environment or humans. Hazardous materials are substances that
pose a threat to any living organism, including plants. It is
the supervisor's responsibility to train technicians to be good
environmental stewards.
He must do this by instilling a
commitment to protect and preserve the environment.
All
laboratory personnel should be able to extract applicable
information from the MSDS.
The supervisor should train
technicians to do this and schedule retraining sessions as
deemed necessary. Experience has shown that good environmental
stewards follow established safety procedures.
The laboratory
supervisor must strictly enforce safety precautions, not only to
ensure safety of personnel, but also to maintain a successful
environmental stewardship program.
The laboratory NCO must
ensure that environmental stewardship is also incorporated into
everyday laboratory operations and testing procedures. He must
always consider the effects of laboratory personnel actions upon
the environment.
Technicians must be trained to identify
environmental risks and to analyze the influence of their
actions on the environment.
In your role as the laboratory
supervisor, you must constantly evaluate your operations to
improve environmental friendliness as well as to substitute
harmful substances with those that present lesser environmental
concerns.
Clean and clutter-free working areas contribute to
better environmental stewardship. You must observe testing and
other operation to ensure the work area is clean and safe.
Safety
is
a
major
contributing
factor
to
the
overall
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environmental stewardship program.
5-2
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