Facilities, Safety and Physical Plant Health & Safety

Biosafety -SUNY Oneonta follows prudent biosafety procedures and standard microbiological practices, which serves to minimize the spread of contamination generated through lab processes and to protect both personnel and the environment. Guidelines for Biosafety in Teaching Laboratories.

Chemical safety - Environmental health and safety have developed lean methodologies with the lab community to ensure compliance with the relevant Federal, State and Local regulations.

General lab safety - Good lab practices are an integral part of conducting research safely. We promote safe work practices in labs across departments.

Accident, injury, and illness reporting

OSHA requires employers to report all severe work-related injuries, defined as an amputation, in-patient hospitalization, or loss of an eye. The requirement began on January 1, 2015. This page provides information from those reports, including a description of the incident and the name and address of the establishment where it happened. Injuries are coded using the Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System.

Aerial lifts and forklifts

Aerial lifts are common pieces of equipment found around campus. They enable SUNY Oneonta personnel to work at heights safely.

OSHA Fact Sheet - Aerial Lifts

Powered industrial trucks, commonly called forklifts or lift trucks, are used in many industries, primarily to move materials. They can be used to move, raise, lower, or remove large objects or a number of smaller objects on pallets or in boxes, crates, or other containers.

OSHA Quick Card - Safe Forklift Operation

Confined space

Workers need to enter potentially hazardous confined spaces to maintain and operate many building systems. EHS provides confined space training, space identification and evaluation.

OSHA Fact Sheet - Procedures for Atmospheric Testing in Confined Spaces

U.S. Department of Labor - Confined Spaces

OSHA Quick Card - Permit-Required Confined Spaces

Electrical safety

Incidents involving electricity can cause burns, explosions, shocks, and death, and are a major cause of building fires. The SUNY Oneonta Electrical Safety Program has been developed to help individuals recognize and avoid electrical hazards. The goal is to reduce and manage the risk of electrical arc flash hazard, shock, equipment damage, and fire.

Fall protection

EH&S helps employees who work at heights over four feet. Fall protection includes rooftops, ladders, scaffolding, and floor and wall openings.

Hand and portable power tools

Hand and power tools are a common part of our everyday lives and are present in nearly every industry. These tools help us to easily perform tasks that otherwise would be difficult or impossible. However, these simple tools can be hazardous and have the potential for causing severe injuries when used or maintained improperly. Special attention toward hand and power tool safety is necessary in order to reduce or eliminate these hazards.

Hot work

Hot work fires result in avoidable death, injury, and hundreds of millions of dollars in property loss each year. When everyone follows safe hot-work practice, these fires are preventable.

Lockout tagout

Unexpectedly starting-up or releasing stored energy from building equipment and systems can cause serious personal injuries or fatalities.

Personal protective equipment

Use personal protective equipment (PPE) when you can't eliminate hazards by other means. Properly selecting, caring for, and using PPE reduces workplace hazards.

Service contractor safety

Contractor safety management is a critical component to ensuring a safe workplace. The purpose of the contractor safety program is to ensure the safety of students, faculty, staff and SUNY Oneonta guests as contractors perform work for the University.

Golf Cart Safety

A golf cart may seem like it’s slow and harmless, but serious injuries can occur because of unsafe golf cart use. Every year OSHA investigates injuries, and sometimes fatalities, that occur because of incidents involving a golf cart. Golf carts moving at speeds as low as 11 miles per hour can easily eject a passenger during a turn.

Near miss reporting

The purpose of this policy is to ensure that all near-miss incidents (including minor incidents) are reported, recorded and investigated. Reporting and sharing information with relevant parties creates an opportunity to answer the questions of what happened and why and then to use this insight to determine how to prevent a reoccurrence.

Auto Shop Safety

The purpose of the Repair Shop Safety Program is to establish safe work practices and procedures to ensure that employees working within or utilizing repair shops are aware of specific hazards associated with repair shops and the controls necessary to prevent injury and illness.

Asbestos operations and maintenance

An Operations and Maintenance (O&M) program is a formulated plan of training, cleaning, work practices, and surveillance to maintain asbestos-containing materials (ACM) within buildings in good condition. The goal is to minimize exposure of all building occupants to asbestos fibers.

To accomplish this objective, EPA recommends that an O&M program include work practices to:

• Maintain ACM in good condition.
• Ensure proper cleanup of asbestos fibers previously released.
• Prevent further releases of asbestos fibers.
• Monitor the condition of ACM.

Bloodborne pathogens

SUNY Oneonta employees must follow the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Bloodborne Pathogen (BBP) Standard if they may have occupational exposure to either:

• Human blood, body fluids, or unfixed tissue
• Human cells or cell lines
• HIV or the Hepatitis B Virus

Hazard communication

The hazard communication standard reduces chemical-related occupational illness and injury potential. EH&S hazard communication procedures and training make sure chemical substance hazards are communicated to all employees.

Ergonomics

Ergonomics is the applied science of equipment and process design to maximize productivity by reducing operator fatigue and discomfort. Simply put, ergonomics is the science of designing the job to fit the worker, rather than physically forcing the worker to fit the job.

Hearing conservation

Exposure to high noise levels can cause permanent hearing loss. Short term exposure to loud noises may lead to temporary hearing changes. Some SUNY Oneonta jobs require employee baseline and annual audiogram testing.

Indoor air quality

SUNY Oneonta aims to operate buildings to meet established performance standards for ventilation, temperature, relative humidity, air quality, odor, noise, and lighting. Properly designing, constructing, commissioning, and maintaining building systems provides a healthy and productive workplace.

Thermal Stress (Heat and Cold)

Working in extreme temperatures (hot or cold) can overwhelm the body’s internal temperature control system. When the body is unable to warm or cool itself, heat or cold related stress can result. Heat and cold stress can contribute to adverse health effects which range in severity from discomfort to death.