Environmental Health and Safety is involved in the safety of the students, staff, faculty, and research on campus The office is always busy, and many of our safety areas overlap. We work together. We work with multiple offices around campus to improve safety for the campus community. Help us improve safety and keep each other safe!

Areas we oversee, who is involved, and what we do:

Biological safety – Biological Safety Officer and Assistant Biological Safety Officer –review IBC, IRB protocols, and Particularly Hazardous Substance (PHS) Requests to mitigate exposure risks;  biological audits;  review, update, and write UA policies handling Biological Safety

Chemical safety– Chemical Hygiene Officer and Compliance Auditor -reviews building plans, Chemical inventory, and PHS requests to mitigate, performs compliance audits, facilitates safety training

Fire and Life Safety – Fire Marshal – Building plan reviews, manages annual maintenance of Fire suppression systems, annual and monthly Fire Extinguisher inspections, AED maintenance monthly inspections, and  Narcan (Opioid Overdose) kits

Hazardous Waste – Chemical Hygiene Officer -Hazardous Waste management and disposal

Industrial Hygiene – Campus Industrial Hygienist and Campus Safety Technician – mitigating risk exposure within UA jobs, maintaining engineering controls in student and research labs, assisting with the Occupational  Medical Surveillance Program, review and investigate accidents and unsafe conditions to mitigate risk to prevent future accidents, and review, update and write UA policies dealing with Job and student safety

Laser Safety – Radiation Safety Officer and Assistant Radiation Safety Officer- review research protocols and SOPs to mitigate risks exposure while using lasers, perform safety audits, and currently developing a UA Safety policy and program

Occupational Safety – Campus Safety Officer and Campus Safety Technician- review job SOPs, investigate accidents and unsafe conditions to mitigate exposure risks;  safety audits; review and investigate accidents and unsafe conditions to mitigate risk and prevent future accidents, update, and write UA policies dealing with Job and student safety.

Radiation Safety- Radiation Safety Officer and Assistant Radiation Safety Officer- review radiological protocols and use requests,  manage UA Radiological License, perform radiological audits, and review, update, and write UA manuals, and policies dealing with radiological safety.

We are starting to delve into environmental safety as well. The new position will deal with safety within the built and natural environments the students, faculty, and staff will experience on campus.

Current projects

1. Formalizing the Radiation Safety document retention plan, digitizing records, and beginning implementation.

2. Redesign/update the lab safety training.  There are several safety compliance training that need to be updated.  I  want to develop an AED and evacuation training for the buildings on campus.

3. Starting a student safety group to promote safety on campus- from general campus safety to specific research and lab safety. So students are involved in the conversation about what safety means to them.

4. Updating website content to reflect current federal, state, and UA regulations

5. Develop and implement a chemical sharing program on campus to reduce hazardous waste

6. Develop safety programs for respiratory safety, confined spaces, monitoring groundwater (MS4), and indoor air quality,

7. Increase the UA’s sustainability

8. Develop a Hazardous Material plan that includes maximum allowable quantities in buildings

Previous interns’ projects:

  • Researched state and national policies to develop the UA Occupational Health policy that is being implemented,  
  • Conducted a departmental survey on student laboratory safety and compiled a summary report on concerns which was sent to department heads.
  • Analyzed our website effectiveness, compared University EHS websites, and helped develop a website update that is being vetted by UA branding and legal to implement.

Contact Karmen Boddie at kbrehmer@uark.edu to apply. In the email, please include a little about your interest in this particular internship and please attach your resume.

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