Chemical safety and waste disposal

• Purdue Chemical Hygiene Plan template
  A work area specific CHP is required. The template must be modified to bear your work area's identification and information. If the template as provided is adequate and covers all the risks and all the requirements for your work area, the only changes you need to make are to
  1. the cover page, and
  2. page (i), and
  3. Appendix L.
     

It is the responsibility of the supervisor (faculty member for sponsorred research) to ensure that the work area CHP adequately addresses all the requirements detailed in the OSHA Laboratory Standard.

A printed and signed (by the supervisor) copy of the work area CHP is to be located in the work area and its location is to be known by all who work in the area. REM staff members and/or regulatory enforcement personnel might request it, and it must be produced promptly.

Each work area's work area specfic CHP is to be reviewed and revised annually before the end of January as a condition of our safety program certification.

• Allergies
• Gases
• Liquids
• HF
• Carcinogens
• Pregnancy
• Pyrophorics
• Liquid nitrogen
• Mercury
• MSDSs
• ToxNet
• Chemical Hazards References
• NAP -- Prudent Practices

• Report These Materials This 4-page form is also an appendix in the CHP template.
  It is not necessary that a completed version of it appear in your CHP, although that is not a bad idea.  It must be updated annually before the end of January and submitted to the Department Safety Committee.  It is also one of the conditions of our annual safety program certification.

• See the REM information about shipping even small samples of materials which might be more regulated than you realize.
  
  "Hazardous materials" might include things that are not incredibly hazardous but require careful shipping details to be attended to. SHIPPING of chemical samples is highly regulated, and even the most benign-seeming small thing which 20 years ago you would have just popped into an envelope and sent to your colleague at Cambridge..... must be considered carefuly by the people who know how to follow all of the the Deparetment of Transportation rules.

• Chemical waste disposal at Purdue is done quite efficiently and carefully by the REM Hazardous Materials Management section. Waste accumulation, segregation, labeling, and pick-up request procedures are detailed in their "Guidelines..." document.

CHEMICAL WASTE  REM has been forced to discontinue its web-submit pick-up request form, which many regard as a terrible backward step. They are working on a replacement.


What makes a waste a RCRA-regulated hazardous waste? (It's easiest to call REM HMM section at 40121 and ask.

   If it has one or more of these characteristics
      Toxicity   (if your waste is or contains any of these elements or compounds, name them in the "chemical description")
      Ignitability   (complex definition, includes, but not limited to, flammable liquids)
      Corrosivity   (... has a pH ≤ 12.5 or ≥ 2 as determined by..... OR corrodes steel (SAE 1020) at a rate greater than.....)
      Reactivity   (See the definition there.)

   If it is on a list:
      F-listed wastes   (wastes from non-specific sources)
      K-listed wastes   (wastes from specific sources)
      P-listed and U-listed wastes   (discarded commercial chemical products, off-spec species, container residues and.....)
     

• CFATS inventory   The Department of Homeland Security requires this one, and noncompliance can have more serious results than we like to think about.   The Dean of Science is required to submit all of the Science departments' information to the Office of the Provost.   For 2012 please submit your completed form electronically to swihart@purdue.edu on or before March 23.