Annual lab clean outs are a mandatory safety practice.  Regular clean outs prevent the accumulation of unwanted chemicals, including those that become dangerous with age, and are essential for finding and identifying inadequately labeled materials (usually old samples) before their owners forget what they are or (even worse) leave GT leaving behind no clue as to the material’s identity and hazards.

Clean outs should be attended by all lab group members to ensure that nothing valuable is discarded and to ensure that everyone has equal responsibility for keeping the lab safe. See Creating a Culture of Safety. Clean outs are most effective when done in conjunction with one of the chemical inventory reconciliations.  Reducing the size of the inventory makes it easier to reconcile.

It is the PI’s responsibility to ensure that work space clean outs, including disposing or transferring materials to another researcher are accomplished prior to the departure/graduation of a student or post doc.

Contact EHS for help in wasting out chemicals (404-894-6224) or for help reconciling your EHSA inventory (by email: ehsa@gatech.edu)