Environmental Health & Safety provides comprehensive environmental health and safety services to all faculty, students and staff. These services include: biological safety, chemical & environmental safety, occupational safety and radiation safety.
While natural disasters cannot always be predicted, there are steps you can take to prepare for an approaching storm. Use the links to help you know what to do for both your laboratory and your home in an emergency.
Emergency Freezers
Environmental Health and Safety has -80°C surge freezer space available, for use in an emergency or when defrosting a -80°C freezer. Contact Environmental Health & Safety for access:
During normal business hours contact:
Outside of regular business hours, call the Environmental Health & Safety Freezer Pager at: 757.415.0014.
The Biological Safety office addresses employee safety, training, policies and other concerns regarding occupational exposure to biological agents and materials. The Biological Safety Manual is the primary source of information on biosafety at the school.
Institutional Biosafety Committee
Investigators proposing to use biological materials require authorization from the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC). IBC Registrations are submitted using the SciShield Management System.
The Biological Safety Officer (BSO) is available to help Principal Investigators register their laboratories, as well as help with any other aspect of the system (such as forms, equipment registration, etc.). Additional information about the IBC and its procedures are published by the Office of Research.
Responsibilities of the Chemical Safety Office include:
These elements are conveyed to faculty and staff in laboratory safety training courses such as Chemical Hygiene Plan.
The Chemical Hygiene Plan, a requirement of the OSHA Laboratory Standard, is the primary source of information for procedures on the safe use of chemicals in the laboratory. A copy of the "Chemical Hygiene Plan" should be kept in each laboratory.
A companion text to the "Chemical Hygiene Plan" is the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) binder which is also located in each lab. SDSs describe characteristics of chemicals and list precautions for their use. The SDS should be reviewed prior to using a chemical for the first time and reviewed periodically.
Resources
Occupational safety is the prevention of accidents, incidents and events that harm people or the community.
The Occupational Safety Office offers:
Resources
Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University is licensed to possess and use radioactive material by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Each individual proposing to use radioactive material in research is required by license conditions to submit applications that document previous training and experience with radioactive materials and describe the specific radionuclide and proposed protocol. Individuals authorized to use these materials are either:
