Information about EHS Bio/Chemical Lab Audit Follow-up
We would like to inform you of an enhanced follow-up procedure our EHS safety advisors are implementing with the annual Bio/Chemical laboratory audit. At the time of the bio/chemical audit, the EHS safety advisor who conducted the audit will request that outstanding items be addressed and completed documentation for those items, where applicable, be forwarded to the safety advisor within a reasonable period of time.
After the lab visit, the safety advisor will send a summary email to the laboratory contact and PI and remind them of the outstanding items and necessary follow-up, if applicable. Most items requiring follow-up can be quickly resolved, either at the time of the audit or shortly thereafter and often because they involve documentation. The safety advisor will continue to contact the laboratory until the outstanding documentation items have been addressed. For outstanding items that are not strictly documentation, the advisors and other EHS staff are available to assist with completion. Our lab audits are designed to cover many regulatory items and we believe it is in the best interest of the lab and the University that these regulations are fulfilled.
We recognize that the audit follow-up tasks can become another thing on the long list of daily work tasks so we hope your labs will take our reminders to be a positive thing. Although most labs are doing well, the goal is to resolve outstanding items quickly so gaps do not appear on audits from year to year and create vulnerabilities in case of a future regulatory inspection.
Please pass this information on to your laboratory managers and PIs so that they are aware of the follow-up procedure in advance of their annual lab audit. [Since there has previously been some follow-up requested at the time of the audits, the primary change now is that labs will be requested to send documentation items to EHS by email, fax, etc. and additional communications may take place with labs.] Thanks for your assistance.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact Haley Sinn (haley-williams@uiow.edu, 353-5679) or LuAnn Hiratzka (luann-hiratzka@uiowa.edu, 355-7964).
New requirement for recombinant DNA research
Based on recommendations by NIH, the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC, rDNA committee) is now requiring that all staff (PIs, RAs and students) working with recombinant DNA pass the “rDNA Research, NIH Guidelines“ training course available through EHS’s website here: https://research.uiowa.edu/ehs/training. This course covers the requirements of the NIH Guidelines and provides information regarding the roles and responsibilities of various personnel involved with recombinant DNA research. As of February 1, 2009, rDNA Registration Documents will NOT be reviewed by the IBC until all applicable staff has passed the rDNA training course.
Please contact Biosafety Staff at 335-8501 if you would like additional information.
