Safety correspondents (COSEC) are the first safety contact for each research unit.
Roles and responsibilities:
Professors and heads of units are responsible for ensuring health and safety in the workplace of their respective research units.
They are by default the safety correspondents (COSEC) for their unit. They may delegate this task to an experienced employee.
The role of COSEC is to:
- Inform and train laboratory personnel, including external guests, on the specific safety regulations of the research unit.
- Ensure that all users comply with safety rules, including those related to waste management, the use of personal protective equipment, and accident management. Organize an inventory twice a year with the dedicated tool in Catalyse/Jaggaer.
- Inform the OHS of safety-related accidents via the dedicated tool (Incident Manager).
- Transmit the information sent by the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) to the unit staff.
- Inform the OHS service of any safety-related changes in the unit, such as new hazards, major changes in infrastructure, new activities and scale-ups of experiments.
- Participate in the safety audits.
- Inform the Principal Investigator of any safety-related problems in their research unit (dangerous behavior, refusal to wear personal protective equipment, hazardous handling of reagents or waste, etc.).
- Create and update “door safety data sheets” every time there is a change related to hazards present in the room and at least once a year.
- Check and update first aid equipment (e.g. eye showers, first aid kits, fire blankets).
The COSEC must be a person who:
- has an extensive laboratory experience and ideally a fix term contract in the research unit.
- is aware of all hazards and laboratory activities present and carried out in the laboratories used by their unit.
- has the ability and the authority to impose safety rules in the laboratory.
From now on, any appointment or departure of a COSEC is automatically integrated into the HR file of the person concerned. This new procedure is enable us to better formalize and monitor this essential function for the safety of our facilities and employees.
A specific ServiceNow form must be completed to announce a change of COSEC within a unit. This form must then be validated by the line manager before being taken into account. It is recommended that the new COSEC announces their arrival by filling in the form. However, the form can also be completed by another member of the unit if required.
If you have any questions or require assistance, please contact us via our support service.
The audit is done with the presence of the COSEC, and with the laboratory responsible person, if present. Please read our “Safety visits” page and the “Audit guidelines“.
Please find here the trainings for COSEC and other safety trainings for laboratory personnel:
- If necessary, create a label identifying the storage location (ventilated cabinet, shelf) via the following link: https://lhd.epfl.ch/lhd_cosecs/barcodes/#/list. Labels can be picked up at faculty shop.
- contact the faculty shop, which will help you to organize the inventory by setting up the scanner and giving you instructions on how to carry out the inventory.