News and Announcements 2009

Reusable Sharps Containers: Program Expansion at Medical Center Campus

Beginning the week of October 5, 2009, new, reusable containers will start replacing the current models.  One single reusable container will replace 500 single-use containers, limiting the amount of plastic in the Regulated Medical Waste stream.

Though the containers will have a slightly different look, pick-up and replacement service will be unaffected by the transition to the new containers.  Containers will be picked up, emptied and sanitized before reuse. 

Labs should prepare their sharps containers for pick up on Monday and Thursday mornings: all containers should be left outside of the lab on Monday and Thursday mornings between 9 and 11 am.  Labs should continue to prepare and handle red-bagged Regulated Medical Waste and any remaining “old” sharps containers in accordance with current procedures.

Please ensure all containers are at least ¾’s full before placing outside the lab for pick-up.

Contact EH&S’s CUMC office at 305-6780 with any questions.

The University’s RASCAL system is a critically important portal for many research and administration needs. In addition to hosting training modules and worksheets for creating grant proposals, RASCAL is also used to create and submit IACUC and IRB protocols, along with their associated Hazardous Materials Appendices. These Appendices are used by EH&S to evaluate safety and compliance aspects of the research protocol. The Appendix submission process, as well as the process of updating or modifying an existing Appendix, can sometimes be a source of frustration however, particularly for those who do not regularly use the RASCAL system.

To facilitate this particular operation, EH&S, in conjunction with RASCAL’s administrative technical support staff, has developed a step-by-step worksheet that guides users through this process from start to finish.

  • If you KNOW the number of the RASCAL Appendix that you need to change, click here
  • If you DO NOT KNOW the number of the RASCAL Appendix that you need to change, click here

 

Polystyrene foam boxes are used often in shipments of temperature-sensitive materials; their lightweight and insulating properties make them ideal for this purpose. Producing these boxes is highly resource-intensive however, and their plastic ingredients have an indefinite half-life in landfills (or oceans, or rivers).

To help limit the production and subsequent disposal of these boxes, EH&S, in cooperation with the Morningside Mail Room, is pleased to announce a recycling program for Polystyrene/Styrofoam shipper boxes. Bring clean, empty boxes (not the cardboard outer box), with the supplier’s postage-paid return label attached, The Central Mail Room (CMR) where personnel will arrange for the boxes to be returned for re-use.  Do not bring boxes to the CMR unless such a label has been provided.

DIRECTIONS TO DROP-OFF SITE

From the street level:
Go to 119 street and Amsterdam where you will see a security booth, proceed inside the gate passing the dumpsters as if you are going to the GYM.  At the beginning of the tunnel you will see the loading dock for the CMR, room 101 of the Service Building.  Deposit boxes on right side of the dock.

From the upper campus level:
Take the Schermerhorn Hall elevator down to the second floor. Get off the elevator, make a right and walk down the hall passing two double doors, there you will see the sign for the CMR (101 SERVICE BUILDING).