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Particularly Hazardous Substances

Duke OESO provides the GHS Lookup Tool as well as other resources to help labs identify chemical hazards and actions needed to document safe procedures for working with a particular chemical. Once you identify the specific hazards (flammable, oxidizing, corrosive, etc.) find the appropriate chemical safety guidance on our Chemical SOPs and Guidelines page.

If you have chemicals that do not appear in the GHS Lookup Tool, review the GHS Criteria for particularly hazardous and high risk chemicals information sheet or matrix and the SDSs for your chemicals to determine if they are particularly hazardous and/or high risk. To request that chemicals be added to future versions of the GHS Lookup Tool, email OESO at labsafety@duke.edu with the CAS number and name of the chemical and a copy of or link to your supplier’s SDS.

Any particularly hazardous or high risk chemicals identified must be included on your lab’s list of particularly hazardous substances (part of your lab-specific chemical hygiene plan) and your lab must create and implement lab-specific standard operating procedures. For high-risk materials, OESO approval is required for highly toxic materials and PI approval is required for physical hazards. Departmental approval may also be required.