Safety Regulations
Annex 1 to the Danish Working Environment Authority’s guidelines on classification of laboratories, facilities, and production.
The safety regulations may include provisions on:
Access rules
- What the rules are for access by unauthorised persons.
- Where to store bags, coats, etc. – outside the classified area.
- What personal protective equipment, such as lab coats and footwear, everyone must wear at all times in the rooms, including visitors and tradespeople.
- Where personal protective equipment must not be worn, when to change into other clothing, and where to store personal protective equipment when not in use.
- What kind of gloves to wear, when and where they are stored.
- How cleaning staff, tradespeople and technical staff should be supervised and who will supervise.
Prohibitions
- That consumption and storage of food and beverages is not allowed in the room.
- That irrelevant materials must not be found in the laboratory. This applies to technical aids that are not used in connection with the specific activity, bags, and clothing, etc. Cardboard boxes also do not belong in classified rooms; these may be replaced by plastic boxes.
- What not to pour into the sink.
- What not to put in the trash – perhaps it is not needed!
- That necessary notices on walls and elsewhere should be laminated.
- That the hand-washing sink in Class 2 areas must only be used for washing hands.
- That doors and windows must be kept closed in Class 2 areas. In Class 1 areas, doors and windows should be kept closed to ensure efficiency of the ventilation system.
- That mouth pipetting is prohibited.
The actual activities
- When hand washing is a requirement, where they can be washed, and which towels to use.
- Where notes, reports and other written material must be written and kept.
- When to work in a fume hood or in an LAF bench.
- That needles, syringes and sharp objects should be used as little as possible.
- That the formation of aerosols should be minimised.
- Who cleans workplaces daily, e.g. tables, fume hoods, LAF benches, sinks, and which cleaning agents and methods to use.
Waste and recyclable articles
- How to treat recyclable (glass) items and waste with GMOs (liquid, solid or prickly) and personal protective equipment, and where this should be done by autoclaving or chemical disinfection. However, chemical disinfection is only permitted in Class 1 areas.
- Which containers are to be used to transport waste or recyclable items out of the room, and how the same containers are to be labelled.
- That transport containers from Class 2 areas must be disinfected on the outside before they are removed from the room.
Spills and accidents
- What disinfectants must be in the room. This also applies to storage rooms.
- How the room will be put back in order after spills or accidents.
- Who to call in case of an accident outside normal working hours.
- Where the log 6 for recording accidents and spillage is located in Classes 2-4.
Storage and other transport of GMOs
- Where GMOs may be stored, e.g. in a freezer (room number) or cold room (room number) outside the room where the actual activity involving GMOs takes place.
- How the storage locations are marked.
- Which containers to use for storing the GMOs and how they are labelled.
- How to transport GMOs to other classified rooms and how to label the containers.
Responsibility
- Who has the main responsibility for the room, including for keeping it tidy.
- Who is responsible for instructions.
6 Log, booklet or electronic recording, where all accidents or incidents that may have any consequences for persons, or the environment are recorded.