The Environment, Health and Safety Office (EHS) has launched a web-based program to facilitate training for about 400 of MIT's principal investigators, supervisors and their staffs on how to meet federal, state and municipal requirements for handling, using and storing hazardous materials in their laboratories.
The program, implemented in phases, requires new and current lab personnel to complete a training needs assessment form and sign up for training. About 2,000 research personnel have already logged in to the new system and begun training. The program was developed under the direction of MIT's EHS ad hoc subcommittee to meet requirements of the EPA consent decree.
Federal and state regulations require that principal investigators and supervisors of laboratory employees who work with potentially hazardous chemicals receive the same annual waste training as the people they oversee. Principal investigators and supervisors are also required to conduct lab specific chemical hygiene training, providing detailed information regarding risks and proper handling procedures for specific hazardous chemicals used in their labs. The requirements, some of which are cyclical, are not new at MIT.
MIT researchers may visit http://web.mit.edu/environment/training to determine their EHS requirements, complete web-based training or register for classroom training, and check the status and history of training they have completed. The researcher must have an MIT certificate and use a Kerberos ID and MIT ID to register.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on December 10, 2003.
