Lab safety-related laws and regulations having the force of law
If you use chemical products or lab chemicals, you probably empty a bottle occasionally. What do you do with it?
Improperly-disposed containers can expose custodians and the public to hazardous chemicals, can create legal liability for you and the university, and can even explode at the disposal facility.
Find out what to do (and what not to do) in What do I do with my empties?
The US Federal Select Agent Program oversees the possession, use, and transfer of biological select agents and toxins. A list of Select Agents and toxins can be found here.
Although most of the Select Agents are serious human pathogens such as Ebola hemorrhagic fever virus and bubonic plague organism, the list includes some toxins used legitimately in biological research, such as ricin.
A good general introduction to radiation hazards, both ionizing and non-ionizing, can be found on OSHA’s radiation page. It contains many radiation hazard and regulation links.
Among its other hazard information pages, OSHA has a basic list of laser resources that may prove useful to laser users.
If you are using electricity of any sort, OSHA’s electrical information page is an excellent place to start for hazard information.
OSHA maintains a page with laws, regulations, good practices, and links to further information, all covering work with compressed gases and equipment.
The NIH guidelines for research involving recombinant or synthetic DNA molecules are the basis for JHU’s DNA project registration and review procedures. Molecular biology researchers should be intimately familiar with this document.
Many government agencies have jurisdiction or interest in laboratory safety, and their websites often contain useful information.