Environmental Health & Safety

Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S) is a multidisciplinary field that focuses on the protection of human health and the environment by minimizing recognized hazards. The University of Washington is committed to providing a healthy and safe environment for faculty, staff, students, visitors, and volunteers in all sites owned, operated, or controlled by the University.

Collectively, the University president, faculty, staff, students, visitors, volunteers, University health and safety committees, the Environmental Health and Safety Advisory Board, and Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) all have responsibilities to support a culture of health and safety.

EH&S tracks and investigates work-related incidents to help prevent injuries, illnesses and to maintain safe and healthy workplaces. Workplace injury and incident reporting is required by federal and state regulatory and funding agencies.

If an incident occurs:

Follow the EH&S exposure response procedures if potentially exposed to hazardous materials.

1. Complete any immediate first aid/medical care measures
2. Report the incident to your supervisor
3. Submit an incident report via the Online Accident Reporting System (OARS)

Types of work-related events to report

• Injury events are defined as any harm to a person, including physical injury, that may or may not require first aid (e.g., use of medication, band-aids, ice packs, etc.).
• Illness events are workplace illnesses that can result from exposures to infectious agents, communicable diseases, and heat.
• Exposure events are workplace contact with a hazardous material such as a chemical, biological, or radiological agent; contact could be with the eyes, nose (inhalation), mouth (ingestions), or skin (absorption or injection).
• Fire events include flames and/or smoke, even if the fire goes out by itself.
• Near-miss events identify a potentially unsafe condition or behavior at work where no injury, illness, or property damage occurred, but where, given a slight shift in time or position, they could have occurred. For example, if a worker tripped while walking, but was not injured, this would be considered a near-miss event. Near-misses are valuable opportunities to correct potential hazards.

For assistance with completing an incident report, contact EH&S at injury@uw.edu.

If you will be working at a location without internet access, download and save or print the Incident Report Form (PDF) prior to leaving internet service. Complete the PDF after an incident occurs and type the information into the UW’s Online Accident Reporting System when you return to internet service.

The University’s health and safety committees help foster a strong culture of safety with a goal of preventing workplace injuries and illnesses.

The UW health and safety committee structure, which includes ten organizational health and safety committees along with the University-Wide Health and Safety Committee, represents all UW employees institution-wide. Responsibilities of the health and safety committees include:

• Evaluating workplace incident reports for cause and corrective actions
• Evaluating accident prevention programs and safety inspection trends
• Acting as liaison between committee members and the UW personnel they represent
• Evaluating health and safety-related materials
• Recommending actions to resolve health and safety concerns

The University’s health and safety committee program is overseen by Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S) and aligned with the safety committee requirements of Washington State Department of Labor and Industries.

The UW Tacoma committee (HSC-8) is advisory to the Vice Chancellor for Finance & Administration and meets the fourth Wednesday of every month at 3:00PM in a hybrid capacity unless otherwise noted.