Chemical substances and biological material

Some of HiOA's activities imply the use of chemical substances (chemicals, chemical products, gases) and biological material. These are used in laboratories, when cleaning and in workshop activities.

Many chemical substances have characteristics that could pose a danger to employees' health and safety. Units that purchase and use such substances are obliged to remove or replace them with less hazardous ones (substitution). The requirements for substitution are especially strict for carcinogenic and mutagenic substances.

HiOA has an electronic chemical database with an overview of chemical substances and the health, fire and environmental hazards these pose. The chemical database must also contain a list of biological material.

All use of carcinogenic, mutagenic substances, lead and lead compounds must be registered in a separate exposure registry.

Many chemicals can represent an environmental hazard and should be handled as hazardous waste. Biological material can represent a health risk and should be stored and used so as to ensure that no employee or student is exposed to risk of infection.  Biological material must be disposed as infectious / hazardous waste.

The HSE unit can answer questions about the chemical database and the exposure registry.