Health & Safety Policy

For prevention in the area of working conditions within the UM Randwyck premises, prevention officers are appointed in every department. A prevention officer at Randwyck is called an occupational health and environmental care officer (Dutch acronym: ‘armico’). The armicos are managed by the Health & Safety Coordinator. In addition there is a Health & Safety head at the UM department MUO, on behalf of the organisational policy ‘university-wide’.  Specifically for UM Randwyck the Health & Safety committee UM Randwyck is established, who looks after the health & safety and environment aspects on behalf of the Faculty Boards of FHML and FPN, and prepares decision making.

The Health & Safety Committee Randwyck prioritizes the activities, draws up the educational plan for the armicos, discusses and decides upon Health & Safety rules and regulations, on the recommendation of the Health & Safety Coordinator. The results are presented to the Board, who passes it on to the Faculty Council.

Working healthy and safely UM

Go to https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/support/um-employees/you-and-your-work/working-conditions

CANS

CANS, Complaints of the Arm, Neck or Shoulder, is an accumulation of complaints of the locomotor system in the arm, neck or shoulder that is not attributable to an acute trauma or systematic illness. A period of overexertion often precedes the complaints and the complaints are so severe by that point that they affect normal function to a greater or lesser degree. The complaints may include pain, stiffness, tingling, clumsiness, fatigue, loss of coordination or loss of strength.

By means of a workplace examination the preventionworker/armico can prescribe certain measures in order to diminish the complaints.

If you do not know who is your Armico or your group has no Armico, please contact via info-CRISP@maastrichtuniversity.nl to request a workplace examination.

Prevention policy

In UM Randwyck’s prevention policy the armicos play a central role. They give information and instructions, judge situations and advice staff and managers about the situation and what measures should be taken. Advices on workspace situation are included in the personnel file. Advices on design or equipment of laboratories are discussed by the Health & Safety Coordinator with the department, School and Faculty Director

The industrial clothing, lab coats, coats for service personnel and general Personal Protective Means are provided by the Faculty. Other, more specific job related protective means, have to be purchased and maintained by the (research) groups themselves.

Hazardous substances, registration and documentation

For managing proper handling, storage and disposal of hazardous substances, the FHML has a system for documentation and registration of hazardous substances at its disposal. This system, GROS, makes an accurate stock control possible. Furthermore the system holds information about the properties and classification of hazardous substances and storage requirements. GROS is accessible for all employees of UM that come into contact with chemicals via:

http://um-app3088.unimaas.nl:8080/gros/wrd/run/wstof*toon

The department CRISP-Facilities is responsible for all GROS administration.

Risk Inventory & Evaluation

A RI&E has to be up-to-date for the aspects mentioned in the Health & Safety law. The Health & Safety Committee UM Randwyck has decided to design the RI&E in a modular way. Every year, several aspects are investigated and judged. Consequently, the accompanying scheme of action defines the degree of topicality.

Vaccination

At the University, preventive measures are taken with respect to Hepatitis B infections.

Employees:

For employees, who (are going to) work with human material, a vaccination program has been developed, which is conducted by Ease Travel Clinic.

Via EASE application form HEP B vaccination can be enlisted.

The Vaccination program consists of three vaccinations and a titer measurement. The total procedure takes eight months in time. Vaccination data will be stored at Ease Travel Clinic and are available for the Hospital’s First Aid.

Students:

Medicine students will be invited for a Hepatitis B vaccination in the first year of their study. Participation in the vaccination program is voluntary, but hospitals can demand from the employees that they should be vaccinated in order to protect the patients. MLS students are invited in their second year for a Hepatitis B vaccination Other students can apply through the Education Office for vaccination. The vaccinations for students are carried out by Ease Travel Clinic in the azM. For traineeships abroad a Hep B vaccination is, among other things, mandatory.

Occupational health

Every workspace, in the office, the educational environment as well as in the lab-spaces has to deal with ‘contamination’. The contamination can be hazardous for the health of the staff members, but it can also lead to wrong or at least affected research results. Both for good information and instruction, and for measurement and judgment of workspace and –situations, the unit Facilities has an occupational health officer at its disposal, who works for the Randwyck campus.

Industrial clothing

In order to work safely with chemicals, biologic agents, radiation and laboratory animals, industrial clothing is required. The clothing varies from a complete outfit for operations and registered carcinogens, reprotoxic and/or Mutagenic substances (CRM-substances), to the use of a warehouse coat for personnel that works with lab material.

The use of a lab coat with a green or red collar is required for so-called MLI or higher labs or for use in watched and controlled areas with ionizing radiation (C1 or higher). These clothes can not leave the lab other than in the prescribed way. It is forbidden to wear lab coats in offices and in public places. The clothes are provided by the Faculty. Click here for the regulation industrial clothing FHML (only in Dutch).

The environment

Everywhere where people work, environmental aspects are an issue. On the one hand this means limitations on the emission and waste production, on the other hand this means guidelines geared towards safety and limitation of consumption. Within the UM an Environment Specialist is hired and placed at the department of General and Technical Services (Dutch acronym: FD).

Through the link below all work instructions and relevant documentation on the environment can be consulted:

https://intranet.maastrichtuniversity.nl/en/work-instructions-procedures-and-information