Leslie,

The EH&S group at University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) performs chemical inventory at our university’s central receiving building.  The answers to your questions should help explain our process. 

How is ordering of chemicals managed?   Is it done by individual PIs/department, or is it centralized?

Individual research groups and PI’s order their own chemicals as needed, ordering chemicals is not centralized.  UNR EH&S does not have any involvement in the process of ordering chemicals.  All ordering at UNR is handled differently by each department and faculty are given credit cards to make purchases.  

Is central receiving part of a chemistry department, part of an EHS department (or other)?

Our central receiving department already existed as its own department, handling both packages and mail for the entire campus (chemicals and non-chemicals).  It is not part of the chemistry department nor part of EH&S.  The central receiving department is responsible for delivering  all packages, including chemicals, to department “mail stops”.  Department mail stops are the administrative offices for any given department.  In 2007 EH&S started inventorying all the chemicals delivered to UNR at central receiving, but we did not handle chemical deliveries.  In 2009 EH&S took over the delivery of chemicals to one department, the Chemistry Department, as a start-up program.  Currently EH&S delivers all chemicals ordered by the Chemistry Department, while central receiving staff still deliver the remaining chemicals to all other departments.  We anticipate by the end of this year, EH&S will be delivering all chemicals to all departments.

Keep in mind that ALL types of packages are delivered to central receiving, not just chemicals.  We visually assess all the boxes and pull everything that might contain a chemical aside.  We inspect packing slips to determine contents. If packing slips are not available, we open the box to determine the contents.  We end up opening a lot of boxes that don’t contain chemicals – they get closed up and returned to central receiving.

Where is the central receiving area located?  Inside buildings where there are labs, a separate building near laboratory buildings, or at a distant location (across campus)?

Our central receiving building it its own building, located at a distant location across campus, a stand-alone building with loading/receiving docks.  It has large bay doors for receiving large items and equipment.  It is an indoor/outdoor work area, but our specific area for opening boxes with chemicals (we open the boxes, NOT the chemicals themselves), place a unique bar code number on each bottle, inventory the item in a database, and re-pack the item as delivered by the supplier.

Are chemicals used in art/engineering/theater departments included in requirements for chemicals to all be received at the one location?

Basically yes.  We require that anyone, regardless of department, that places an order for chemicals have them shipped to central receiving, not to their specific building and room.  The exceptions are compressed gases and cryogenic liquids – those items are handled by the supplier and delivered directly to the purchaser’s room (EH&S at UNR does not handle, deliver or pick up empty large gas cylinders or cryogenic liquids).

Also, nothing prevents people from buying chemical containing products from local commercial stores, such as “home depot”. Such items do not get delivered to central receiving since they are transported directly to the purchasers building/room – they by-pass central receiving.  We inventory these type of items when we do a physical inventory in buildings.

How many personnel and what is the scope of their duties?  (ordering/receiving/delivering only; part of laboratory inspection and safety training programs)

We have four total people dedicated to inventory management at UNR, one overall manager (me), one working supervisor in charge of day-to-day inventory operations, and two inventory technicians.  The entire chemical inventory group is considered part of the laboratory safety group.  The overall manager does perform some general laboratory inspections, but the other members of the inventory team spend full time conducting inventory and don’t do general lab safety inspections.  However, since they handle just about every chemical containers on campus, they do document problems with containers that are brought to the attention of the PI for corrective measures.  The overall manager is responsible for generating any regulatory reports that involve hazardous chemicals.

Ordering – zero staff devoted to this

receiving/delivering – generally two to three people per day devoted to this.  The mornings are for chemical receiving and delivery, the afternoons are for inventory within buildings/rooms (physical inventory of every container).

The redundancy of staff for chemical inventory at central receiving and delivery is a must.  Central receiving is open every university business day – staff must be present to identify, inventory and deliver chemicals.

Our comprehensive approach to chemical inventory is as follows:

• EH&S staff regularly schedule visits to buildings and rooms where chemicals are used/stored to obtain a snap-shot of the chemicals present at that time.  Most buildings are physically inventoried once per year.
• EH&S staff identify chemical containing packages delivered to UNR at Central Receiving on a daily basis and inventory them before they are delivered to the recipients. 
• All chemicals inventoried by EH&S have a unique seven digit bar code number sticker placed on the bottle to facilitate tracking and the physical inventory.
• All scientific research and teaching laboratories that use/store chemicals are included in the physical annual inventory. 
• Most non-lab areas, such as the Art department and Facilities Operations areas are also included in the physical inventory, although their inventories may be updated less frequently.

We handle about 10,000 chemical containers a year at central receiving, about 40% of which are delivered to the chemistry department.  In addition, we inventory chemicals where they are stored in buildings/room and handle about 80,000 per year.  We use bar codes and scanners for rapid data acquisition of previously inventoried items. 

Other things we do not handle besides large gas cylinders and cryogenic liquids are packages whose contents are shipped on dry ice.  We do not open those items.  We do not open chemicals that are sealed in metal shipping cans (usually pyrophorics or other highly reactive chemicals) at central receiving – so we ask the purchaser to place our bar code on those bottles when they open them in their lab.

I believe that U.-Mass Amherst EH&S has a program similar to what you are proposing – where only hazardous chemicals are shipped to a specific location and delivered by their staff. 

Luis P. Barthel-Rosa, Ph.D.

Manager, Chemical Management Services

Environmental Health and Safety Department

University of Nevada, Reno

775-327-2270 office

luisbr**At_Symbol_Here**unr.edu

http://www.ehs.unr.edu/chemicalinventory.html

From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:dchas-l**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU] On Behalf Of Leslie Coop
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2012 12:17 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU
Subject: [DCHAS-L] chemical receiving

Our university is in the process of developing a central chemical receiving area.  We would like to have some input into how others manage chemical receiving, particularly if chemicals are delivered to a central location.

How is ordering of chemicals managed?  Is it done by individual PIs/department, or is it centralized?
Is central receiving part of a chemistry department, part of an EHS department (or other)?
Where is the central receiving area located?  Inside buildings where there are labs, a separate building near laboratory buildings, or at a distant location (across campus)?
Are chemicals used in art/engineering/theater departments included in requirements for chemicals to all be received at the one location?
How many personnel and what is the scope of their duties?  (ordering/receiving/delivering only; part of laboratory inspection and safety training programs)

The committee will likely have more questions, but this is a start.

Thanks for your input!

Leslie

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