Creating Standard Operating Procedures

Summary: The PI/Lab Supervisor is responsible for providing written Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) relevant to health and safety for laboratory activities he/she directs involving hazardous chemicals. Laboratory personnel working autonomously or performing independent research are responsible for developing SOPs appropriate for their own work using the guidance below.

Priority for SOP development should be given to any operation involving Restricted Chemicals, certain higher risk chemicals, such as particularly hazardous chemicals and highly reactive chemicals and specified higher risk research procedures described in the CHP.

The scope of an SOP can cover:

  • The specific use of a chemical or class of chemicals (such as a specific laboratory procedure).
  • The generic use specific chemical or class of chemicals with similar hazards (for example, mineral acids).
  • A generic procedure (such as distillation) that covers several chemicals.

General use SOPs for the major classes of hazardous chemicals are available for you to incorporate into your own SOPs, as appropriate.
They can be found in the online Toolkit's "Reference Info" section.

What to do? How to do this?

1. Prioritize SOPs to generate

Consult with PI/Laboratory Supervisor on above guidance.

2. Create SOPs

Follow Guide to Creating Standard Operating Procedures

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