Mandatory employee training: for all in Biology
All employees
The following is for anyone working or volunteering in the Biology Department and includes undergraduate researcher, graduate students, postdocs, visiting scientists, staff and faculty.
All those with paid or volunteer work (not those taking courses) within the Department of Biology need to complete the following mandatory training offered through the UW Safety Office:
- WHMIS 2015 for employees - staff, faculty, postdocs, grad students must be renewed every 5 years)
- Workplace Violence Training
- Employee Safety Orientation
- Returning to Campus Safely during COVID-19
- Accessibility Training Module
All new employees and students working in labs must complete all mandatory training prior to receiving keys to their lab. Send proof of completion to Lucy Satora at lucy.satora@uwaterloo.ca.
Supervisors
All supervisors of postdocs/graduate students/undergraduate students, including undergraduate laboratory instructors are required to have Supervisor Online Orientation completed.
Additional training: biohazards, gas cylinders, lab safety
Safety office and laboratory safety
The Safety Office has a very important webpage with information on laboratory safety and maintains an alphabetical listing of all their extensive resources related to safety including required laboratory posters.
Laboratory inspections
Laboratory supervisors are required to undertake a safety evaluation of their space every month. Inspections are completed online at the University of Waterloo Safely website.
Emergencies and First AID information
Emergency contact information
Post on the inside of all laboratory doors an emergency contact sheet so others in the building know who to contact should people need to enter the laboratory.
Get the Emergency Contact Form from the Safety Office.
Fire marshals
The Safety Office maintains the list of fire wardens and building evacuation coordinators at the following links on their website.
Injury and incident reports
Reporting an injury
If you are injured, and will or have required aid (something more serious than what a simple bandaid can take care of), you need to submit the following form to Jennifer Lehman at jdlehman@uwaterloo.ca, ESC-350B. This reporting doesn’t mean there will be an investigation initiated into your work. We are trying to track problems and this will help.
Fill out the injury/incident form and submit within 1 working day of the incident
Incident investigation report
If there is an accident, even if people are not hurt, but where either a spill, fire or explosion occurred that could have hurt someone or damaged property, please submit the Incident and Investigation Form to the Safety Office.
Working alone guideline
Working alone under certain circumstances can increase an individual’s risk to health and safety. Measures to assess, communicate and mitigate such risks must be implemented to effectively manage risk related to this type of activity.