Environmental Health and Safety

Chancellor's Memorandum

CM-59 - Safety and Environmental Policy and Responsibilities

To: LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans Faculty, Students, and Staff
From: LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans Chancellor

October 15, 2024

Purpose

This document provides the Chancellor's safety and environmental policy statement, and sets forth responsibilities associated with these programs.

Policy Statement

The LSU Health Sciences Center at New Orleans (“LSUHSC-NO”) is committed to operating safely to minimize health hazards, reduce injury risk, and ensure a healthy environment for all faculty, staff, students and visitors while conducting its mission in compliance with all applicable environmental health and safety laws and regulations. As health and safety are integral to every aspect of mission delivery across all LSUHSC-NO facilities and functions, maintaining a safe and healthy environment is a primary responsibility of all senior leadership and supervisors.

Maintaining a safe and healthy environment also requires full community involvement and thus requires all faculty, staff and students take responsibility for their own safety and set an example for others in following consistent safe practices in the workplace. The LSUHSC-NO Environmental Health and Safety (“EH&S”) Department oversees all applicable campus programs and advises all members of the LSUHSC-NO community on safety and environmental programs and requirements.  

GUIDELINES & RESPONSIBILTIES FOR ENSURING ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH & SAFETY

Vice Chancellors, Deans, Directors and Department Heads (“Administrators”) are responsible for:

  • Ensuring that all activities under their control are performed safely and in compliance with current policies and guidelines.
  • Implementing all safety and environmental programs in their areas of responsibility.
  • Accountability, through their respective administrative channels, for the control and reporting of accidents and hazardous exposures in the work environment.

Supervisors are responsible for the personnel under their supervision and will:

  • Incorporate safety as an integral aspect of all operations.
  • Train employees in the safe use of equipment and in safe work practices specific to the workplace.
  • Ensure new employees and employees who are assigned new tasks are trained on safety procedures before starting work.
  • Ensure training is properly documented.
  • Inspect their work areas for compliance with safe work practices and identify potential hazards.
  • Correct any unsafe acts and unsafe conditions.
  • Report and investigate accidents.
  • Provide timely responses to questions or concerns about environmental health and safety issues.
  • Hold personnel accountable for failure to comply with safe work practices, rules and regulations.

Individual faculty, staff, and students are responsible for their personal safety and will:

  • Follow prescribed safety rules and regulations.
  • Immediately report safety hazards to their supervisor.
  • Report to the supervisor all incidents/accidents, including “near misses,” and any change in health status if it may be due to a job-related activity.
  • Seek guidance from their supervisor if there is any uncertainty on any issue that may impact workplace safety.

The EH&S Department, as the principal provider/coordinator of all LSUHSC-NO safety and environmental requirements, will:

  • Provide resources to assist with identification, evaluation, and control of hazardous situations.
  • Provide assessments for research laboratories and shops working with potentially hazardous chemical, biological, or physical agents.
  • Provide general safety training.
  • Provide hazardous waste disposal.
  • Develop and issue rules and procedures.
  • Assess safety performance and accident trends.
  • Check for compliance with applicable safety laws and codes.
  • Plan and direct a regular program of safety inspections.

LSUHSC-NO’s standing oversight committees bring together members of the community to work collaboratively with EH&S to assess the safety and environmental programs and recommend/implement improvements:

  • The Executive Committee for Environmental Health and Safety assesses the prior year’s accomplishments and the coming year’s goals of all oversight committees and EH&S, and provides guidance and advice on program improvements to enhance safety readiness.
  • The Institutional Biosafety Committee reviews, approves and oversees research using rDNA to ensure compliance with NIH guidelines. The committee also reviews all research for biological safety issues.
  • The Laboratory Safety Committee assesses the adequacy of existing training and other protections related to laboratory safety. It ensures the university's compliance with federal and state regulations and University policies regarding laboratory activities
  • The Radiation Safety Committee is the governing body for all aspects of radiation protection, including all affiliated research, clinical, instructional and service units that use ionizing and non-ionizing radiation.