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POLICY: Hazardous Waste Safety and Disposal — Clinical Laboratory PURPOSE: Transfer of hazardous chemical waste from laboratory accumulation site for disposal. PRINCIPLE To provide a safe working environment. PROCEDURE 1. All flammable liquids, liquid toxins, liquid irritants, liquid corrosives, and liquid carcinogens used in the Clinical Laboratory Department must be discarded in appropriate containers. Appropriate containers include leak resistant plastic containers with screw tight caps or, red Justrite oval style safety cans. 2. All Laboratory staff handling Hazardous Waste will wear appropriate protective equipment, which may include barrier resistant lab coats, disposable gloves, safety goggles, masks or respirators used to prevent exposing oneself to toxic or biologic contamination. This protective clothing is removed and left in the Laboratory before leaving for non -laboratory areas (e.g., cafeteria, library, administrative offices). All protective clothing is either disposed of in the Laboratory or laundered by the institution; it should never be taken home by personnel. 3. The transfer of chemical waste should take place inside a fume hood with the exhaust fan turned on where available. The accumulation start date must be indicated in the appropriate area on the hazardous waste label on the side of each container. 4. The full or partially full cans will be taken to a hazardous waste cabinet in the Materials Management building on Cemetery Lane on a daily basis by the Lab Technician or designated staff Monday thru Friday. All flammable chemical containers that are in use or full will be kept on the bottom shelf of the flammable cabinet. 5. The Materials Management Department staff is responsible for emptying these small containers into a 50 gallon drum and indicating the date it was emptied on the label of the Justrite or leak resistant transport container. 6. Empty flammable chemical containers will be kept on the top shelf of the flammable cabinet. 7. Laboratory staff will bring available empty containers back to the Lab for reuse. They will remove the Hazardous Waste label after checking to make sure that the disposal ,date was properly recorded on the label. The label will be filed in the Hazardous Waste binder and a new Hazardous Waste Label will be applied to the container. The new label applied to the container should only reflect the waste that will be collected in the container.