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.
October 1-31, 2019 is the 6th annual “Biosafety and Biosecurity Month”, sponsored by the American Biological Safety Association – International (ABSA International). Biosafety Month was originally launched in 2014 to foster institutional awareness of, and commitment to, biosafety policies, practices, and procedures. Biosafety Month is an opportunity for institutions to highlight the importance of biosafety and undertake activities to strengthen their biosafety programs. This year’s theme is: “Beyond the Lab: Increasing the Visibility of Biosafety and Biosecurity” with the social networking hashtag #biosafety_biosecuritymonth.
The goal of this year's theme include:
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Promoting the visibility of biosafety and biosecurity as a profession.
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Highlight the multidimensional nature of the biosafety and biosecurity profession.
- Foster dialogue, transparency and education in work involving biological materials with all stakeholders.
UTHealth is committed to maintaining a safe and healthy working and learning environment for all of our staff, faculty, students and medical residents, and in support of Biosafety Month we will be reviewing our institutional safety policies that deal with potentially infectious organisms.
To be successful, biosafety and biosecurity stewardship must involve EH&S and research investigators. During the month of October, EH&S will host a series of “Open Houses” where members of the UTHealth community can meet the EH&S Biological Safety Program staff, and discuss questions you might have about biosafety including the protocol review process, the Institutional Biosafety Committee, or best practices in the lab. Open Houses are planned for:
- McGovern Medical School’s leather lounge on October 7, 2019 and October 14, 2019, from 10 AM – 1 PM
- Fayez S. Sarofim Research Building’s atrium on October 22, 2019 from 10 AM – 1 PM
- UTHealth School of Public Health’s lobby on October 29, 2019 from 10 AM – 1 PM
If you haven’t “checked under the hood” lately, we encourage you to take a moment to review existing lab safety programs and procedures with all of your students and staff, and make updates according to any changes that may have occurred. Review and update Institutional Biosafety Committee protocols to reflect the current work being conducted and the list and storage location of all infectious agents. Ensure all students and staff are current with their safety training – and if additional training is needed please visit the EH&S website https://www.uth.edu/safety/training/ or contact us at 713-500-8100 for more information on biosafety and other safety training being offered.
Importantly, we also recommend that research investigators review all inventories of infectious agents and biological toxins in your laboratories (regardless of whether they involve recombinant or synthetic nucleic acids) stored in freezers, cold rooms, and/or other locations to ensure that all unknown or unneeded materials are disposed of properly. If any assistance is needed with disposal, please do not hesitate to call EH&S at 713-500-8100. |
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Finally, the following are some ideas that you can utilize to integrate biosafety and biosecurity into your lab meetings/discussions/practice:
- Identify opportunities to collaborate with EH&S Biological Safety Program on SOP development, or even applied biosafety research
- Review high-risk and high consequence procedures in your work environment.
- Discuss the importance of securing pathogens and chemicals that could potentially cause serious harm and take care of identified security issues.
- Review procedures in your lab environment, the engineering controls in place, donning/ doffing personal protective equipment, and decontamination and disposal procedures.
•Involve all members of the lab in periodic review and revision of SOPs.
•Encourage collaboration with biosafety and biosecurity support personnel in this review process.
- Actively participate in the safety surveys of workspaces and storage by EH&S to assess the effectiveness of your controls, procedures, and behaviors.
- Review emergency response plans and SOP. Conduct drills or exercises (when applicable) to ensure everyone understands the plans.
For more information on Biosafety and Biosecurity Month from ABSA International, please visit: https://absa.org/event/2019-biosafety-month/
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?
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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.
Insider Threat Awareness at UTHealth
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Reporting behaviors of concern is vital to protecting the University's intellectual property, it's safety and future. |
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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Initial Lab and Bloodborne Pathogen's Safety Trainingevery Monday* at 1:15 pm |
Annual Lab and Bloodborne Pathogen's TrainingOnline only |
Basic Radiation Safety TrainingSeptember 11 & 12, 2019 |
Infectious Substance Shipping Training: In-person trainingOctober 17, 2019 [UTPhysicians Training]Questions regarding training?
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