What Occupational Health and Safety can do for you!

Overview of Services

The Department of Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) oversees Life Safety, Fire Safety, Industrial Hygiene, Chemical Safety, Environmental Management, Hazardous Materials, Radiation Safety, and Biological Safety programs for the entire UAMS campus. You can find more safety information including a complete UAMS Safety Manual on the OH&S Web page, which can be accessed from the UAMS Home Page in the Administration Section.

Two types of services are available to the UAMS campus:

1.) General support services are those activities for which Campus Operations departments receive budget allocations. There is no charge for these services. Typical support functions from OHS include:

• Consultations with students, employees, staff members, and departments on safety issues.

• Consultation with students, employees or staff members that are working with ionizing radiation and are pregnant or anticipating a pregnancy.

• Training related to safety issues (blood borne pathogens, chemical hygiene, electrical safety, ergonomics, fire safety, hazardous materials, ionizing radiation and radioactive materials safety, and life safety).

• Applications for Approval to Use Radioactive Materials are submitted to the Radiation Safety SubCommittee through the Radiation Safety Officer in OHS.

• Approval of purchase orders for radioactive materials by authorized users.

• Accident and Injury Reporting and Investigation.

• Hazard Reporting, Investigation and Follow-up.

• Laboratory Safety Audits and Building Life Safety Code inspections.

• Confined space entry evaluations.

• Exposure assessments for occupational exposures to thermal stress, noise, air contaminants, non-ionizing radiation (except lasers), ergonomic evaluations and material handling evaluations.

• Respirator fit testing for individuals wearing respiratory protection devices.

• Surveys and wipe-tests for radioactive contamination on request – doesn't include routine surveys required of the laboratories by regulatory agencies. Includes surveys of chemical fume hoods and sinks in laboratories where radioactive materials are used before repair of the hoods, sinks or drains.

• Radioactive material spill response and clean-up.

• Biohazardous Waste (Medical Waste) Pickup and Disposal.

• Routine non-radioactive hazardous waste.

• Radioactive Waste Storage for Decay and Disposal – for items with radioactive half-lives of 90 days or less.

2.) Departmental services are rendered on special request and are chargeable to the department for which the service is performed. Typical activities in this category include:

• Radioactive Waste Processing and Disposal – for items with half-lives longer than 90 days, disposal costs are charged back to the generator.

• Radiation Monitoring – radiation dosimeters (badges) and rings for monitoring of individuals exposed to ionizing radiation are billed back to the departments using those services on a monthly basis.

• Annual calibration and/or repair of Geiger counter radiation detectors (survey instruments) (repair usually done for cost of replacement parts only).

• Employee monitoring for exposure to chemicals such as formaldehyde, nitrous oxide, and other materials (charges for sampling supplies only).

• Asbestos sampling.

• Lab Packs for disposal of hazardous wastes.

• Mercury sponges for cleaning up spilled liquid mercury – mercury spills are usually handled by the housekeeping supervisors.

• Chemo spill kits are available for cleaning up chemotherapy drug spills (also available from Inpatient Pharmacy).

• Blood and body fluid spills are handled by Clinical Housekeeping.