The Office of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) supports the University’s Biological Safety Program through the following functions.
- Training and Education: Develops and coordinates institutional biological safety training and educational resources to promote safe laboratory practices and regulatory compliance. For more information refer to the Training Guide on EHS website.
- Incident Reporting and Investigation: Provides incident reporting for biological safety incidents, near misses, and safety concerns and conducts investigations to identify root causes, recommend corrective actions, and improve program effectiveness. Access to the reporting form can be found on the navigation panel titled “Report all University Incidents, Near-Misses, and Safety Concerns.”
- Emergency Response Support: Assists with emergency response activities involving biological hazards, including biological containment breaches, bloodborne pathogen exposures, and other biological incidents requiring EHS support.
- Biological Waste Management: Biological Waste is managed under EHS’s Waste Management Program. For more information, please refer to Waste Management Page on the EHS website under Program Areas.
While EHS provides institutional support for biological safety the ownership of biological safety belongs to the Institutional Biosafety Committee, Institutional Review Board, and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. More information regarding these committees can be found on the EHS website under “About Us” section and clicking on “Committees”.
