Keeping your safety documents up to date and easily accessible are key for staying safe. Faculty, staff, and students working in research and teaching laboratories need to have access at all times to their Chemical Hygiene Plan, which is a combination of the Laboratory Safety Manual and lab-specific safety documents. This can be challenging if the lab has a large number of staff, more than one room in a building, or multiple locations on campus. A shared drive containing all your safety documents makes it easier to keep them current, have access to them in all lab locations, and ensure that everyone is using the correct version.
If you do not already have your Chemical Hygiene Plan on a shared drive, EH&S has created an Electronic Chemical Hygiene Plan focus sheet to help you get started. There are many options for file formats, software, and platforms for you to choose from, including Google Drive, which is free to all UW personnel. Visit UW Information Technology’s website for additional information and policies about using UW Google Drives and UW Google Shared Drives.
For questions about or assistance with your chemical hygiene plan, please email labcheck@uw.edu.