Safe work procedures are required for work that is deemed by supervisors to be sufficiently hazardous.
In general, whenever chemicals are to be used review the SDS for safety information.
Basic safety training is provided at the department/university level. This does not suffice for task-specific training, such as operating potentially hazardous equipment or conducting potentially hazardous procedures. A safe work procedure is part of the required safety training for that.
The safe work procedures provided below cover some common operations and some particularly hazardous ones. How materials and methods are employed in research and testing may vary enormously. It is impossible to cover every possible situation in a safe work procedure. In such cases a safe work principles document is needed.
- Chemicals safe use principles
- Nital (nitric acid-alcohol) preparation
- Use of picirc acid
- Perchloric acid use
- SRS HF safe work procedure
- Safe use of glassware
- Peroxidizable chemicals
- Use of compressed gases
- Use of liquid nitrogen
Developing safe work procedures
Supervisors may use pre-existing SWPs from a suitable source. Alternatively supervisors can refer to the following information provided by SRS to develop their own safe work procedures/principles documents. In general this involves doing a risk assessment and writing the SWP. Information on both is provided below.