Certain pieces of equipment in your lab may have additional safety concerns during operation, such as lasers, fume hoods, autoclaves, high voltage equipment, and machining equipment. Any piece of equipment that poses a hazard should only be operated by individuals trained to do so, using Standard Operating Procedures, and only after the appropriate compliance party has performed a risk assessment. For general risk assessment questions, you may contact Technical Operations' Director Bryan Quinn (bquinn@umd.edu) and Compliance Officer Dmitry Akmal (dakmal@umd.edu). For additional guidance, you may wish to submit a ticket to AskESSR.
Listed below are some of the more common types of equipment hazards in ECE laboratories, and who to contact:
Lasers: See ESSR's Laser Safety Guidelines. Radiation Safety Officer Steve Hand (hand@umd.edu, 5-3985) should be notified of any laser use at the University.
High Voltage: ESSR is currently developing safety guidelines for high voltage equipment. If you have questions regarding a hazard assessment, please reach out to dakmal@umd.edu and labsafety@umd.edu.
Fume Hoods: ESSR manages the annual fume hood testing program. If you believe your fume hood is not functioning properly, do not rely on it as a control measure until receiving guidance from biosafety@umd.edu.