Biological Safety Program

The Biological Safety Program is responsible for providing support to The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston students and personnel concerning the recognition, evaluation, and control of chemical, biological, and physical hazards. Our goal is to provide the safest work environment for all UTHealth employees and the surrounding health science center community, as well as minimizing risk to the environment and property.

The Biological Safety Program is located at CYF in room: CYF G102. They may be reached by phone at: (713) 500-8170 or fax at: (713) 500-8111

EHS Main Office 713-500-8100 (answered M-F, 8:00AM-5:00PM CST)
EHS Hotline 713-500-5832  (after hours, weekends, holiday for the on-call safety specialist)
For Emergencies, Dial UT Police Dispatch 713-792-2890 or 911

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Cold Room Use and Care

Do you have questions about what should, or should not be done in a cold room? Perhaps you have heard conflicting information on what is acceptable to store in a cold room. Environmental Health & Safety has developed a short, informational poster about what hazards can be associated with cold rooms and how to lower the risk of an adverse event happening with one.  You can download the poster here.

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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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