A Laboratory Hazard Notice is required to be posted by the entrance of your laboratory.  The purpose of this notice is to inform emergency responders, lab personnel and authorized visitors of all hazardous materials or situation that they may encounter upon entering your laboratory. The hazard notice must include all chemical, biological, radioactive, equipment and other hazards present in the lab. Emergency contact information and entry requirements must also be listed. 

Should an incident occur in your lab, Emergency responders will rely on the hazard notice to make timely and effective decisions to enter and stabilize the incident area. If you are the designated group Safety officer for your laboratory, you must ensure that the information listed on the hazard notice is accurate at all times.

This hazard notice template can be modified to create your lab specific signage (see example). If your lab is located in the School of Medicine, use this SOM template.

How to complete a Lab Hazard Notice:

PAGE 1 - Laboratory Location, Personnel, Contacts and Entry Requirements

Laboratory Name – this is what you call your laboratory. Ex: Electron Microscopy Lab.

Building and Room # - Full Name of your building and room number. Ex: Horizon I, Room 030.

Principal Investigator  – name of faculty to whom the lab space is assigned to. Ex: Principal Investigator: Dr. John Doe.

Research Group – PI, Group Safety Officer, and an alternate should have their emergency phone number (cell phone) listed.

  Example:

PI: Dr. John Doe  (803) 555-5555

Group Safety Officer: John Dea (803) 555-5551

Alt. Group Safety Officer: John Dei (803) 555-5552

John Deo

John Duo

All emergencies call 911 – Include other phone numbers as needed (i.e. Department Safety Coordinator, Building Manager, etc.). 

NOTICE – Do not delete existing signs and texts. No changes needed usually.  However, you may add other entry requirement and precautions.  Include statements and phrases that will inform personnel of all requirements that need to be met before they can enter your laboratory.

PAGE  2 - Laboratory Hazards (must fit in one page)

HAZARDS in Building, Room # - type in your building and room number. Ex: HAZARDS in Horizon I, Room 030.

Main Hazard Group: Fire Hazards, Health Hazards, Physical and Other Hazards, Biological Hazards (indicate BSL level), Radiation Hazards (contact Bryan Bagg 803- 777-7530 to verify required radiation signage)

• • Listed within each main hazard group are common hazard classes that may be present in a laboratory.  Remove all pictograms and associated hazard classes if none of those materials are present in your lab.  For example, you have flammable liquids and compressed gases and no chemicals that are explosive or an oxidizer. You should remove the explosive and oxidizer pictograms and their associated hazard classes and retain only the flammables and Gases under pressure pictogram and associated texts.
  • Retain all main hazard group tables (Fire Hazards, Health Hazards, Physical and Other Hazards, Biological Hazards, and Radiation Hazards) even if no specific material under those hazard groups are present in your lab. Simply delete all pictograms and associated texts and replace with “NONE” .  For example, your lab does not work with any biological and radioactive materials.  The Biological Hazards and Radiation Hazards tables must remain, with the text NONE in the box (see example).
  • You may highlight by listing specific names of a few highly hazardous materials such as HF, hazardous gases (toxic, corrosive, flammable, pyrophoric), flammable liquids exceeding 10 gallons, pyrophoric liquids and solids, and equipment as space allows.
  • Format each section as needed so that all hazards fit in one page.

Fire Hazards - Review your lab chemical inventory and safety data sheets to identify the GHS hazard classes and Category ratings of chemicals present in your lab.  Make a list hazards classes that have Category 1 or 2 ratings. This section of the template lists all GHS hazard classes of chemicals that impact the potential to start a fire or the response during a fire.  Remove the pictograms that do not represent any of the hazard class on your list.  Indicate the total volume of flammable liquids and list individual names of flammable liquids that are stored in 5-gallon or larger containers.  List chemical names of all flammable gases and indicate the total volume of all flammable gases in your lab.  

Health Hazards - Review your lab chemical inventory and safety data sheets to identify the GHS hazard classes and Category ratings of chemicals present in your lab.  Make a list hazards classes that have Category 1 or 2 ratings. This section of the template lists all GHS hazard classes of chemicals that impact a person's short-term and long-term health. Remove the pictograms that do not represent any of the hazard class on your list.  List by name under each hazard class, all chemicals that are particularly dangerous.  For example: Corrosives - HF;  Acute toxicity - Arsine.

Physical and Other Hazards - This refers to equipment, instruments, and other items that pose physical harm such as cutting, pinching, crushing, burning, electrocution, high pressure, and others.  Include equipment that generate hazardous chemicals such as hydrogen generator, ozone generator, mercury generator, etc.  Other hazards refer to items or situation in the lab that are potential safety concerns but are not classified as chemical, biological, physical or radioactive.  Examples are tripping hazards, low beams, noise, confined space, dim lighting, etc.

Biological Hazards and Biosafety Level - List all biological materials (derived from living organism) present and the biosafety level assigned to your lab.  Please note that all BSL-2 labs have a specific signage required in addition to the Lab Hazard Notice.

Radiation Hazards - List all isotopes, laser (and class), x-rays, UV, and optical radiation present in your lab.