Safety, Health, Environment, and Risk Management

Welcome

EHS Main Office 713.500.8100
EHS Hotline 713.500.5832
For Emergencies dial 911

Safety, Health, Environment & Risk Management’s (SHERM) mission is to work in conjunction with the UTHealth community to ensure that education, research, and health care service activities take place in conditions that are optimally safe and healthy for all students, faculty, staff, visitors, surrounding community and the general public.

Put simply, we exist to help people go home as healthy and safe as they arrived.

Our main office is located at the Operations Center Building (OCB 1.330) and we can be reached at 713.500.8100 or Fax 713.500.8111.

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Reminder about PPE use:

This is a reminder to all research personnel that Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) should not be worn outside of the laboratory setting. Recently there have been instances of people observing researchers wearing in public spaces, specifically using gloved hands to open doors or push elevator buttons. After all, do you really know where that glove has been? 

Please do not wear gloves or other PPE outside of the laboratory, especially on elevators, in hallways, or in break rooms.

If it is necessary to transport items between labs on the same floor, one hand may be gloved, while the other hand remains without a glove to open the doors between labs. Gloves should never be worn in the elevator or break rooms. Ideally items should be transported using carts and secondary containment, especially when transporting items between floors.

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UTHealth Safety Recognizes Service Members as Part of Veterans Day Salute

UTHealth Environmental Health & Safety took time out to recognize service members in the department as part of a Veterans Day Salute. Pictured left to right are:  Matt Braswell (US Air Force), Bob Emery (US Public Health Service), Mike Gillum (US Marine Corps) and Matt Duncan (US Marine Corps). Thank you for your service to the institution and the nation.

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Insider Threat Awareness at UTHealth

Reporting behaviors of concern is vital to protecting the University's intellectual property, it's safety and future.

Last year, the Office of Auditing and Advisory Services performed an internal audit at UTHealth on "insider threats".  Insider threats are a real risk to any organization and individuals at UTHealth should remain vigilant of any potential insider threats.  Based on the findings of the internal audit, the best way to do this is through awareness.  UTPD and Environmental Health and Safety have committed to helping raise awareness of insider threats by providing the following information.  Remember, if you see something, say something!

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Announcing updated and improved CATER form

Good news!  The surplus equipment request for pickup form (a.k.a. the CATER form) has been updated and improved by Environmental Health and Safety.  These improvements increase the form’s security, visual accessibility, and user friendliness, and will help streamline the process of inspection of potentially hazardous equipment before removal by Capital Assets Management for reuse or sale to the public.  The new form can be accessed at the following link:  https://apps.uth.edu/ehssurplus.

The new form can also be accessed from the Environmental Health and Safety web page, the Capital Assets web page, and in the Forms Section on the Inside UTHealth home page.

For details on the Comprehensive Asset Tracking and Environmental Release Program (CATER) please visit UTHealth’s Environmental Health and Safety Website here: https://www.uth.edu/safety/environmental-protection/surplus-procedure-guidelines.htm.

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