Occupational & Environmental Safety Office

Chemical Hygiene

Chemical Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

What is a Standard Operating Procedure?
A Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) describes how your lab will handle a hazardous chemical safely, including the amount and concentration you will use, how you obtain or create the working solution, and special handling procedures, engineering controls, and personal protective equipment. Recommended sections for SOPs are shown in the two template documents below (you may use either of these or create your own format).

SOP guidance document with blank form

Two-part SOP for chemicals handled in concentrated (or powder) and dilute forms

When is an SOP required?
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires a written SOP for any work with hazardous chemicals in laboratories. There are additional requirements for SOPs for particularly hazardous substances, or PHSs. (See the PHS Search page for a searchable database of these toxic chemicals.) Other chemical classes (such as explosives, peroxide formers, or pyrophoric materials) should also have written SOPs. These SOPs are an important part of each laboratory’s site-specific chemical hygiene plan.

Is a specific format required?
No, but your SOP must include any relevant information from all of the sections included in the linked forms above.

If I have a written protocol describing the steps of my experiment, can I simply incorporate the important safety information into that document?
Yes. In fact, OESO encourages investigators to incorporate safety procedures into their experimental protocols. As long as the protocol includes information for all of the relevant sections from the SOP template in a user-friendly format, there is no need for a separate safety SOP unless it is useful to the lab for training purposes.

What resources are available to help me complete the SOP?
We recommend that each lab have a copy of Prudent Practices in the Laboratory, published by the National Research Council. The full contents of the book are available online here (Note that you can “Search This Book” for a particular chemical of interest, but that important safety information is included throughout the book). There is a slightly more user-friendly interface available online through www.netlibrary.com for one Duke user at a time (type "prudent practices" in the search). A print or .pdf version of the book can be purchased for your lab.

For many commonly used chemicals, the Laboratory Chemical Safety Summaries in Prudent Practices in the Laboratory (mentioned above) can be used as the basis for your SOP. Check the list of chemicals for which these summaries are available. To go to the summary page for a specific chemical, follow these steps:
1. Type the chemical name in the "search this book" search bar.
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the search results, and look for "Appendix B: Laboratory Chemical Safety Summaries" and click "Show in context" next to this.
3. You will see another search results page, just from Appendix B. Scroll down, skimming for "At the top of page..." until you see "Laboratory chemical safety summary: {name of chemical }". Click the page number.
4. Be aware that many of the chemical summaries cover more than one page. Click the "next" link (single right-facing arrow) to see subsequent pages.
Materials Safety Data Sheets provide chemical-specific information. Check the manufacturer’s website or search our MSDS Resources page.
For glove recommendations, try the Best Manufacturing's online glove guide or the Oklahoma State University EH&S Chemical Guide & Glove Permeation Table.
If you have further questions, please consult the OESO Laboratory Safety group (part of Biological Safety) at 684-8822.
Additionally, OESO has created a few partially filled out SOPs for chemicals used frequently at Duke.

Link to Paraformaldehyde SOP	Others Coming Soon