Institute has established the Office of Laboratory Safety and Environmental Health (OLSEH) to be the primary body responsible for effective implementation of workplace, environmental, laboratory safety across the institute. OLSEH shall report to the Institute Safety Committee. The OLSEH will comprise EHS Officers and Senior Personnel

The primary role of this committee is to:

1. review this policy from time to time and suggest modifications, if any, required.
2. oversee activities of OLSEH with respect to effective implementation of safety policies and advise them from time to time.

OLSEH shall report to the Institute Safety Committee. The OLSEH will comprise EHS Officers and Senior Personnel.

OLSEH shall:

1. conduct periodic risk assessment of all activities, equipment, buildings, policies, procedures, training, and manuals across the institute. These include but are not limited to, research activities; department buildings; and student housing; contractor and vendor regulations; and waste and effluent treatment.
2. take suo moto notice of any safety issue and investigate.
3. bring to the notice of the Safety Committee, any hazards observed during assessments or investigations, in the form of a report, along with recommendations to reduce, eliminate and contain the said hazards.
4. provide recommendations on safety policies and actions to the Safety Committee. The recommendation can include, but are not limited to, rules for personal protective gear, standard operation procedures, waste disposal, storage, emergency response, and incident reporting. In extreme cases of non-compliance as outlined in this Policy, OLSEH can recommend closure of laboratories/facilities. The OLSEH can recommend scrapping of faulty or obsolete equipment on the request of the PI.
5. conduct scheduled and spot audits to ensure that all Safety Policies prescribed by the Safety Committee are being followed in letter and spirit across the Institute. To conduct the audits, OLSEH has a right to demand complete and unfettered access to all spaces across the Institute.
6. inform the Safety Committee of any breach of any prescribed Safety Policy or Safety Rules by any User, on the Institute campuses.
7. periodically review this Safety Policy and submit any proposed changes to the Safety Committee for approval. Once approved, OLSEH shall communicate the said changes to all the stakeholders within a reasonable amount of time.
8. implement any directions of the IISc Safety Committee. This may include technical advice, implement policies, conduct investigation, procure information, and follow-up on action items.
9. ensure that Institute has all the required statutory approvals from state and central governments and regulatory agencies.
10. assist the PI in obtaining the required equipment/facility-specific statutory approvals from state and central governments and regulatory agencies.
11. serve as the primary point of contact for the Institute to all regulatory agencies and governmental departments.
12. facilitate any external safety audits mandated by regulatory agencies or appointed by the Safety Committee from time to time.
13. solicit the Safety Committee for funds to improve the safety infrastructure in the institute.
14. serve as the primary source of contact for Department Safety Champions, on behalf of Safety Committee.
15. compile the biannual self-audit reports from Safety Champions of individual Departments.
16. maintain a list of Department Safety Champions, along with their emergency contacts.
17. maintain a record of all safety incident reports generated by the Department Safety Champions.
18. serve notices to Users/PIs in case of violations in accordance with this Policy.
19. will coordinate with campus security, Health Centre, and CCMD to provide the necessary support for ensuring safety in the campus.

Each department or centre shall have a designated Safety Champion, who must be an Employee from the cadre of faculty or scientific staff with sufficient authority. The Safety Champion will be appointed by the department Chair and informed to OLSEH.

The Safety Champion shall:

1. be the primary point of contact at a Department/Centre, for Safety Committee and OLSEH.
2. be responsible for identifying and informing the OLSEH of any unrecognized hazards in the department.
3. maintain a list of Principal Investigators for all laboratories, along with their emergency contacts.
4. maintain records of the biannual safety-audits required from each Principal Investigator. Also, the Safety Champion must compile the biannual self-audits into a report that must be communicated to the OLSEH every six months.
5. conduct investigation into any safety complaint received from users. If appropriate, the issue can be escalated to the IISc Safety Committee and OLSEH.
6. generate and maintain records of Safety Incident Reports. A copy of these must be sent OLSEH and shared with the Department members.
7. establish an Emergency Response Plan for the department as per the norms established by the Safety Committee. This may include fire prevention, fire alarms, emergency evacuation, assembly points, and emergency response.
8. educate the department community about the Emergency Plan in a mandatory safety session and a surprise emergency drill, to organized at least once every year.
9. establish an emergency response team responsible for overseeing any emergency response. A subset of ERT must be on call 24x7, to respond to an emergency. ERT must ensure complete evacuation, offer technical advice to first responders, inform OLSEH, inform Security Officer, call Emergency vehicles, and manage assembly points. The ERT is expected to understand the safety hazards in the Department. The ERT is also the only authority capable of declaring an “all-clear”.

All laboratories must have a supervising ‘Principal Investigator’ or PI. Typically, this will be a faculty member, scientific officer, or senior project staff. The PI is entrusted with safety and well-being of all Users and Contractors in their laboratory.

The PI shall:

1. be responsible for implementing the safety policies, prescribed by the OLSEH in their respective laboratories. Any exceptions sought for must be approved by the OLSEH.
2. be responsible for arranging funds to implement the safety policies prescribed by the OLSEH. This includes, but not limited to, funds for personal protective equipment; safety detectors; storage cabinets; fume hoods; gas cabinets; signage; first aid boxes; and fire exits, as and when appropriate.
3. appoint a laboratory safety monitor. This could be a senior research student, project staff or scientific/technical staff member.
4. ensure prominent display of the laboratory plan listing hazards and entry/exits as per the format specified by OLSEH.
5. develop well-documented safety protocols for non-standard equipment/facilities and ensure all users are trained in such protocols.
6. respond to any request for safety infrastructure or complaints made by the Users in their laboratory.
7. provide a structure to appropriately train Users in their Laboratory to manage hazards in the Laboratory. The structure must be comprehensive and designed with a ‘reasonable’ User in mind.
8. monitor the entry of personnel into their labs such that only people with appropriate safety training are exposed to lab hazards. Conversely, people who cannot have such training must be excluded from labs.
9. conduct a biannual safety audit of their laboratories. The results of the self-audit should be comprehensive and, in the format, prescribed by the OLSEH.
10. submit the following statement to the Registrar for all new projects:

All Users shall:

1. be personally responsible for their own safety.
2. follow the Safety Rules prescribed by the Safety Committee and/or PI.
3. undergo training in laboratory protocols and emergency responses.
4. understand potential hazards in their respective laboratories and act in a way to minimize the risk associated with those hazards.
5. not indulge in any activities that in their assessment can pose a threat to themselves or others in the Institute premises, even if directed by the PI.
6. inform the Department Safety Champion of any coercion to violate safety norms. These reports will be kept confidential. In extreme cases, information will need to be provided to the OLSEH or Safety Committee.
7. strictly adhere to the safety practices and standard operating procedures established for the laboratories they work in. All Users are expected to be trained and tested in these practices and procedures before starting work in the laboratory to which they are assigned, and must undergo retraining and testing at regular intervals. Serious violations might lead to exclusion of the Users from the laboratory for a specified period or indefinitely.

Any violation of this Safety Policy or Safety Rules will be handled as follows:

1. For a first-time violation, OLSEH will send a white notice to the responsible Principal Investigator, with a time frame for remedial action based on the severity of the violation.
2. If the violation is not remedied within the timeframe, OLSEH will send a yellow notice to the responsible Principal Investigator with an insistence for immediate action.
3. In case of non-compliance, even after a yellow notice, OLSEH will send a red notice to the offending Principal Investigator, ordering a temporary closure of the laboratory/facility until the violation remedied.
4. In cases of severe violations requiring immediate remedial action, the OLSEH office may directly issue a yellow or red notice.
5. In the event of damage to property or other loss caused to the Institute due to violation of the Safety Policy or Safety Rules, the User/s shall fully indemnify the Institute and hold the Institute harmless against all loss, injury and damage. In addition, the Institute reserves the right to claim damages/compensation for loss caused by the actions/omissions of the User in breach of the Safety Policy or Safety Rules.