New to Stanford: Establishing Good Health & Safety Practices

No matter what your position or role, the School's Health and Safety Program is here to assist you and your colleagues in having a safe and healthy workplace.

Good health and safety at Stanford University is a joint responsibility of the administration, faculty, staff and students. Line responsibility for implementing the safety practices begins with the immediate supervisor. In the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences it begins with the Principal Investigator (PI)

Each of Us is responsible for following the requirements of the program involving:

• Keeping themselves informed of conditions affecting their health and safety.
• Participating in training programs, as required.
• Adhering to healthy and safe practices in their workplace.
• Promptly reporting to their supervisors of potential hazards in the workplace, injuries and/or accidents.

• Setting Up a New Lab - When starting up a new laboratory, it is important to implement proper health and safety practices from the beginning. This will not only maintain the lab in compliance with health and safety regulations, but will help to keep the lab a safe and organized place for research.

Principal Investigators - The PI is responsible for ensuring that all laboratory personnel, including part-time students and visiting scientists, are properly trained and informed of the safety regulations, as required by the University's Health and Safety policy and by various government regulatory agencies.

The School's Health and Safety coordinator will conduct one on one briefings for new faculty. Please contact us to arrange a time if we haven't already contacted you. Following are roles and responsibilities for safety and health as part of the University's policies. Our office is responsible to interact with and support everyone in fulfilling their health and safety responsibilities. Please don't hesitate to contact us!

• Department Managers and Directors of Finance and Administration are responsible for ensuring that:
  • Individuals under their management have the authority to implement appropriate health and safety policies, practices, and programs.
  • Areas under their management have adequate funding for health and safety programs, practices, and equipment.
  • Areas under their management are in compliance with Stanford University health and safety practices, policies, and programs.
• Supervisors including faculty are responsible for implementing most aspects of the School's safety program
  • Ensuring that workplaces and equipment are safe, well-maintained, and in compliance with external agency regulations and Stanford policies, programs, and practices.
  • Ensuring that workplace safety and health practices and procedures are clearly communicated and understood by employees through training programs.
  • Enforcing health and safety rules fairly and uniformly related to job performance.
  • Evaluating employees on compliance with safe work practices.
  • Acknowledging employees who make a significant contribution to maintenance of a safe workplace and disciplining employees who fail to follow safe work practices.
  • Encouraging employees to report workplace hazards without fear of reprisals.
  • Ensuring that periodic, scheduled workplace inspections are conducted and that identified health and safety deficiencies are corrected in a timely fashion.
  • Ensuring that accidents and injuries are reported and investigated promptly. See section 7.1 regarding reporting procedures for serious and non-serious incidents.
  • Ensuring that inspections/investigations and employee health and safety records are kept for the designated period(s) of time.
• The University's Environmental Health and Safety Department is responsible for the development and administration of the University's health and safety programs.
  • Assisting supervisors in conducting workplace hazard assessments to identify, evaluate, and correct hazards.
  • Providing training and technical assistance to managers and supervisors on implementation of the program.
  • Reviewing, updating and evaluating the overall effectiveness of the program.
  • Evaluating the adequacy and consistency of training designed by supervisors, departments, and schools.