Characterising bias in regulatory risk and decision analysis

There’s an interesting, although dense, article at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412016303877
entitled “Characterising bias in regulatory risk and decision analysis: An analysis of heuristics applied in health technology appraisal, chemicals regulation, and climate change governance”. It describes the root issues that many of us face in using specific tools (GHS, Job Hazard Analysis, Control Banding, etc.) to make decisions in the face of uncertainty. I am particularly interested in the article’s discussion of decision rules in Table 1 and how that compares to the various approaches outlined in Identifying and Evaluating Hazards in Research Laboratories.

In my mind, the goal of the article is to remind us to put some error bars arounds our decision-making criteria as we proceed with any of these approaches.

Here is a collection of web-based information about using chemical safety levels or other control banding techniques in the laboratory. If you know of another resource or example that we should add to the list, contact us at secretary@dchas.org.

General Information

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe “About the GHS” page:
http://www.unece.org/trans/danger/publi/ghs/ghs_welcome_e.html

OSHA guidance:
https://www.osha.gov/dsg/hazcom/index.html

PubChem Laboratory Chemical Safety Summaries:
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/lcss/

1999 Article in the Journal of Chemical Health and Safety

Chemical safety levels (CSLs): A proposal for chemical safety practices in microbiological and biomedical laboratories
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S107490989900009X

Specific Applications

Laboratory Inspection Frequency

University of Michigan Lab Hazard Rank
http://www.oseh.umich.edu/research/haz-ranking.shtml

Laboratory Personal Protective Equipment Selection Guide

University of South Florida
http://www.usf.edu/administrative-services/environmental-health-safety/documents/labsafety-trainingppehazardassessment2015.pdf

Laboratory Standard Operating Procedures

University of California Davis
http://ehs.ucdavis.edu/article/standard-operating-procedure-templates

Laboratory Ventilation

Cornell University Ithaca Laboratory Ventilation Management Plan
https://sp.ehs.cornell.edu/lab-research-safety/chemical-safety/lab-ventilation/Documents/Cornell%20LVMP_2016.pdf

Laboratory Emergency Response

University of North Carolina Greensboro
http://www.uncg.edu/sft/EnvironmentalAffairs/LaboratoryHazWarningSignProgrampolicy.pdf

Working Safely with Engineered Nanomaterials in Academic Research Setting

California Nanosafety Consortium of Higher Education
http://www.ehs.uci.edu/programs/sop_library/Nanotoolkit.pdf

Control Bands in Biosafety Settings

Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL) 5th Edition
http://www.cdc.gov/biosafety/publications/bmbl5/index.htm

ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety

Tag Archives: Control Banding

Characterising bias in regulatory risk and decision analysis

Control Banding in the Laboratory