Plan for everyone who enters your labs without being lab staff
Contractors, Custodians and Visitors in the Lab is an online course for Chemical Hygiene Officers (CHOs) on the people your Chemical Hygiene Plan usually forgets: the night custodian, the plumber behind the fume hood, the vendor with a sample, the family on open house night, the unpaid intern, and the firefighter who arrives when the alarm sounds. It shows which rule covers each group, what you owe them, and how to put it in writing.
It is written for CHOs in education (school districts, private and independent schools, colleges and universities) and in industry (research, testing, quality control and manufacturing labs). Every lesson shows the step in a school or district and in a company or lab.
What you will learn
- Who the Rules Cover: the Laboratory Standard’s definition of employee, OSHA’s 1990 reading that counts custodians and not guests, and the duty of care owed to students.
- Custodians and Maintenance Staff: what they must be told, the rooms and containers they leave alone, and after-hours spills.
- Contractors: your duties as host employer under Hazard Communication, permits and lockout, and shutting a lab down before the work starts.
- Visitors, Vendors and Guests: the laboratory supervisor’s duty for visitors, protective equipment for each one, minors, and keeping unauthorized people out.
- Students, Interns and Volunteers: in a school, at a university and in a company internship, including temporary workers.
- Emergency Services and Inspectors: firefighters and paramedics at a chemical incident, planning with your fire department, and inspectors in the lab.
- Keeping It Working: keys and access cards, records, and the yearly review.
Finish with a working plan
Each module ends with a Task, and each Task writes one part of your plan for people who are not lab staff: a register of who enters your labs, a custodial briefing sheet, a contractor entry checklist, a visitor policy and sign-in sheet, an onboarding sheet for non-employees, a responder information packet, and a yearly access review. Fillable templates are included for every part, and every module closes with “What you learned” flip cards and a short quiz.
Why this course
- Built on the rules, read at the source: OSHA’s Laboratory Standard and its Appendix A (29 CFR 1910.1450), OSHA’s 1990 preamble on who counts as an employee (55 FR 3315), Hazard Communication’s multi-employer rule (29 CFR 1910.1200(e)(2)) and its limit in laboratories, lockout, confined space and hot work rules, EPA’s arrangements with local responders, the 2024 International Fire Code, NSTA’s 2024 safety position statement and Prudent Practices in the Laboratory, each cited in the lesson that uses it.
- Two settings, one course: school and company scenarios in pairs, with strong answers to compare against yours.
- A companion to the Chemical Hygiene Officer Certification Pathway, CHO Inspecting Labs and Facilities and CHO Managing Violations: it gives visitors and contractors the lessons of their own that the pathway does not have.
- Online and self-paced: work through it on your own schedule, with a certificate on completion.
