Safety
Departmental Safety Pages
Safety Policy Safety Contacts Fire Safety UCL Safety Services
First Aiders Working From Home
Accident and Emergency
University College Hospital Accident and Emergency department
(020 7387 9300)
235 Euston Road,
London
NW1 2BU
Walk to the top of Gower Street, towards Euston square tube station, and turn left onto Euston Road. The entrance is on your left.
Health and Safety Arrangements
Our Approach to Safety
The Department is legally obliged to ensure that staff and students performing potentially hazardous tasks are competent to do so safely, and that all reasonable measures are taken to ensure that the risks involved are kept as low as is practicable.
We ensure this by insisting that:
- All activities must be risk assessed in accordance with UCL policy before they are carried out,
- All staff and students must have received and understood all required safety training for activities before being allowed to do them,
- Our facilities, equipment and safety systems meet all the requirements of current safety legislation.
The Department’s Health & Safety Policy statement for this academic year may be found here and the departmental safety objectives can be found here.
These pages are a reference of Department safety rules and codes of practice, and ensure that our methods of training staff, safely working in laboratories and offices, and our auditing arrangements are collated, recorded, and made easily available to staff and students.
UCL-wide safety policy documents may be found on the central Health & Safety webpages. These pages contain further safety guidance and a list of available safety training modules. If you cannot find the information you require either on the UCL safety pages or on this site, please contact the department safety officer.
A wide range Health & Wellbeing of resources and guidance is available via the 'Remote not distant' website, Student Support and Wellbeing website and UCL Health and Wellbeing website.
For staff; Care First can be contacted 24/7 for confidential, impartial support. Call for free on 0800 197 4510. For students; support is provided by Student Psychological and Counselling Services (SPCS) during office hours (9am to 5pm)- Care First can also be contacted outside these times.
You can also download a copy of this information on our Health and Safety Arrangements document.
Safety Committee
Safety committee meetings are termly. At these meetings all safety concerns, new policies and changes are discussed in accordance with it's terms of reference.
The Safety committee is made up off seven key members of staff, the meetings are also open for any for any other member of staff should they wish to attend. Please email the DSO if you'd like to be included on the invite list.
Name | Room | Tel Ext |
---|---|---|
Head of Department | ||
Prof Sarah Spurgeon | 709 | 57871 |
Departmental Safety Officer & Chemical Safety Officer | ||
Diluka Peiris | 914 | 30574 |
Deputy Departmental Safety Officer | ||
Andrew Moss | 612 | 33043 |
Laser Safety Officer | ||
Prof Cyril Renaud | 903 | 33982 |
Departmental Manager | ||
Andy O'Reilly | 717 | 56323 |
Wellbeing Champion | ||
Diluka Peiris | 914 | 30574 |
Technical Services Manager & Radiation Protection Supervisor | ||
Simon Barnes | 609 | 33898 |
Green Champion & Legionella Awareness Officer | ||
Steve Hudziak | 914 | 33991 |
Safe Working in Offices and Communal Spaces
Guidance for New and Expectant Mothers and Managers
Research Lab Contacts
Lab | Lead Academic | Group | Lab Manager | Emergency Contact | Ext | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(X)G19 | Huiyun Liu |
MBE MBE |
Huiwen Deng |
Huiyun Liu Cyril Renaud (laser) |
x33983 x34436 x33128 |
Chemicals Laser |
(X)G23 | Huiyun Liu |
MBE |
Huiwen Deng | Huiyun Liu Cyril Renaud (laser) |
x33983 x33128 |
Laser |
RB610 | Sarah Spurgeon | Teaching Lab | Gerald McBrearty | Gerald McBrearty |
x33053 |
Chemicals |
RB611 | Polina Bayvel Izzat Darwazeh Alwyn Seeds |
ONG CISG UPG |
George Zervas |
Polina Bayvel Izzat Darwazeh Alwyn Seeds Cyril Renaud (laser) |
x37921 x33945 x37928 x33128 |
Laser |
RB615 | Polina Bayvel | ONG | Zhixin Liu | Polina Bayvel Zhixin Liu Cyril Renaud (laser) |
x37921 x37305 x33128 |
Laser |
RB617 | Polina Bayvel | ONG | Zhixin Liu | Polina Bayvel Zhixin Liu Cyril Renaud (laser) |
x37921 x37305 x33128 |
Laser |
RB619 | Polina Bayvel | ONG | Zhixin Liu | Polina Bayvel Zhixin Liu Cyril Renaud (laser) |
x37921 x37305 x33128 |
Laser |
RB621 | Alwyn Seeds | UPG | Kasia Balakier | Alwyn Seeds Kasia Balakier Cyril Renaud (laser) |
x37928 x33987 x33128 |
Laser |
RB706 | David Selviah | Photonics | David Selviah |
David Selviah Cyril Renaud (laser) |
x33056 x33128 |
Laser |
RB719 | Huiyun Liu |
MBE MBE |
Huiyun Liu |
x33983 |
Laser | |
RB806 | John Mitchell Izzat Darwazeh |
CISG CISG |
Ryan Grammenos (de facto) | John Mitchell Izzat Darwazeh Ryan Grammenos |
x33281 x33945 x37805 |
|
RB815 | Chin-Pang Liu | Photonics | Chris Graham | Alwyn Seeds Chin-Pang Liu Chris Graham Cyril Renaud (laser) |
x37928 x33973 x33980 x33128 |
Laser |
RB904 | Sarah Spurgeon | Nano Lab | Firoz Alam | Firoz Alam | x33991 | |
RB905 | Sanjeev Kumar | Quantum lab | Sanjeev Kumar | Sanjeev Kumar | x37758 | Gas/Cryogen |
RB906 | Ioannis Papakonstantinou | EMD | Usama Zulfiqar | Ioannis Papakonstantinou Usama Zulfiqar |
x37302 |
Chemicals |
RB908 | Tony Kenyon Ioannis Papakonstantinou |
EMD | Ioannis Papakonstantinou | Ioannis Papakonstantinou |
x37302 x33991 |
Laser |
RB910 | Oleg Mitrofanov | Photonics | Oleg Mitrofanov | Oleg Mitrofanov | x33128 | Laser |
RB912 | Sarah Spurgeon | Gas store | Steve Hudziak | Steve Hudziak | x33991 | Gas/Cryogen |
RB919 | Paul Brennan | SSCG | Kenneth Tong | Kenneth Tong | x33019 | |
RB1005 | Sarah Spurgeon | Plant Room | Steve Hudziak | Steve Hudziak | x33991 | |
RB1007 | Sarah Spurgeon | Clean Room | Steve Hudziak | Steve Hudziak | x33991 | Gas/Chemicals |
RB1009 | Izzat Darwazeh | CISG | Izzat Darwazeh | Izzat Darwazeh | x33945 | |
RB1013 | Andreas Demosthenous | SSCG | Andreas Demosthenous | Andreas Demosthenous | x33189 | |
RB1014 | Sally Day | Photonics | Sally Day | Sally Day |
x33055 |
|
RB1102 | Paul Brennan | SSCG | Kenneth Tong | Kenneth Tong | x33019 |
Risk Assessment and Waste Management
Risk Assessment
The purpose of a risk assessment is to identify the hazards involved in a procedure, to set out how those hazards are to be controlled, and to communicate that information to those who need to know.
UCL policy requires that all hazardous activity must have a suitable and up-to-date risk assessment, and these assessments must be recorded in the RiskNet system. Any person who is going to carry out any new activity involving a hazard must conduct a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risk, and establish any required control measures, prior to starting the work.
To be valid, risk assessments must be authorised within RiskNet by a competent person. For research students, this person will usually be their supervisor, and likewise for researchers this will usually be their line manager. However, where someone is working in a lab outside of their supervisor or line manager’s direct control, it may instead be the laboratory or facility manager or a delegated deputy (such as an experienced researcher or technician). Any activity that involves a high hazard task also requires authorisation by the department safety officer.
Our most hazardous environments are our department laboratories and research facilities. Each laboratory or laboratory facility should have general risk assessment prepared, which details the hazards anyone with unsupervised access to the area must be aware of and any controls they must follow.
All laboratory workers are expected to become competent in performing risk assessments; they are required to complete the University’s Principles of Risk Assessment eLearning course before they commence work, so they are able to carry out a proper assessment of the risks involved and the precautions necessary to ensure their safety and the safety of others.
When is a new risk assessment required?
If proposed laboratory work falls within the scope of the activities already covered in the general laboratory or facility risk assessment, there is no requirement to do a full, separate new assessment. However, line managers and supervisors should ensure that their staff and students are familiar with the hazards & controls and receive any necessary training required by the risk assessment.
Otherwise, it is still a good starting point for a new assessment to use the existing laboratory assessment as your starting point. This way, you ensure you include all of the hazards and controls that already exist in your workplace.
When an existing risk assessment for a similar task to your work exists in RiskNet, it is both permitted and encouraged to use this as the basis for your new assessment. In this way, you can make good use of existing expertise. Remember, if the risk assessment was for work in different lab or was completed a long time ago, it will need to be changed to include the latest safety information for the correct lab.
Similar to laboratory risk assessments, certain equipment and specialised processes often have their own risk assessments. Examples include X-ray generators, high power laser systems, and processes involving hazardous chemicals. Often it is not appropriate for non-specialists to attempt risk assessment for these types of equipment and processes, so you will instead be provided suitable training covering the safe operation and safety controls required by the existing risk assessment.
Creating a new risk assessment
If you do have to create a new risk assessment from scratch, how you approach this may vary considerably depending on how specialised the activity is. Below is a useful basic guide to approaching general laboratory work that requires risk assessment. It assumes that you have already determined that a suitable risk assessment does not currently exist in RiskNet and the work does not require specialised assessment.
- The first step in a new risk assessment for a completely new process should be to draft a very basic procedure; write a step-by-step guide in bullet points describing the process, for example for a lab experiment which instruments/apparatus are involved and how they will be used, etc
- Next think about the hazards that may be present, and how likely something might go wrong and lead to harm, and record this for each step. It is useful at this stage to consult any safety documentation available e.g., from equipment manufacturers.
- Then consider the environment the work will take place in- not only the location, but also who else may be working in the area. Review your assessment of the hazards for each step based on this information- how does it affect their severity and how likely they are to cause harm, not only to you but also to others nearby?
- The next step is to determine your controls. You may find, after consideration, that you can eliminate some hazards just by changing your procedure or moving to a more suitable workspace. A very good rule of thumb is the ‘hierarchy of controls’
- Finally, review your draft process with the assistance of your supervisor/line manager, or the lab manager (as appropriate) before transferring to RiskNet for formal review.
It is much easier to edit and review the information in a risk assessment this way, as your draft document can be more easily shared and edited than a RiskNet form.
The RiskNet System
UCL requires that all risk assessments be recorded in the RiskNet system. A step-by-step guide to creating risk assessments can be found here. Your supervisor, line manager or the laboratory manager will also be able to provide guidance in preparing risk assessments using the RiskNet system.
As well as risk assessments, RiskNet also hosts a number of other functions, like DSE assessments. Explaining the full functions of RiskNet are beyond the scope of this document, but an overview of RiskNet systems may be found on the Safety Services RiskNet web pages.
Waste Management
All departments generating hazardous waste have a waste management plan.
The plan will detail
- Types of hazardous waste generated.
- Who is responsible for the waste.
The responsibility is held at a local lab level with PIs to ensure they are in line with UCLs waste streams and will monitor their waste streams including
- Information on when waste is reduced, reused or recycled as well as how it is processed (landfill, heat treatment etc)
- How the quantity of waste generated will be monitored
Please refer to the UCL main website for further information on waste and recycling.
Working in Labs in EEE
ACCESS TO THE LABS:
In order to gain access and work in a laboratory you will need to undergo:
- central UCL Fire Safety
- central UCL Health and Safety
- Local Fire Induction
- Local H&S Induction
- Lab induction by a competent person for each lab you use, this includes but is not limited to:
- Shown the location of the red safety folder in your lab
- Shown how to get in contact with the main lab contacts for any lab related issues, as well as in an emergency
- Read and understood all risk assessments in place for the area you will work in
- COSHH assessments for all chemicals used in the area - new basic COSHH or process COSHH assessments will need to be carried out for new chemicals used.
- How to get rid of all waste including hazardous waste in line with UCL waste policy
- Emergency contingency plans
- Any equipment specific training/inductions/documentation as appropriate to the area
- Any central UCL training needed to work safely e.g. Laser Safety Awareness Training, Safe Decanting of Liquid Nitrogen etc.
- Signed a lab induction form with your lab mentor when you are fully inducted
All laboratories in the Department also use one or a combination of the following for access: pass card/key/code pad. You will be added to the pass card entry lists for a laboratory, or given the code and/or key, following completion of the required safety training for that area.
Most offices in the Department use a key entry system. You will be given your office key on your first day of employment/enrolment.
Office & Lab keys are managed by the IT team. There is a £20 cash deposit for keys. Please see the Policy for Key and Code access for more information.