Animal Use
Occupational Health and Safety Program
The Occupational Health and Safety Program (OHSP) plays an important role in our Animal Care Program. The OHSP provides a mechanism whereby OSU fulfills and manages its institutional responsibility to provide a safe workplace for OSU employees involved in the care and use of animals used for research, teaching, and/or testing on the OSU-Stillwater campus utilizing the principles of hazard identification, risk assessment, risk management, hazard/risk communication and training, and preventive medicine.
The OHSP requirements apply to all OSU employees (i.e., principal investigators/instructors, faculty, staff, etc.) and students (i.e., graduate and undergraduate students) involved in the care and/or use of vertebrate animals (i.e., listed in IACUC approved protocol and/or having direct contact with live animals, carcasses, unfixed tissues, blood, body fluids, wastes, animal holding facilities, etc.) used for research, teaching, or testing activities on the OSU-Stillwater campus that fall within the OSU IACUC’s purview. This policy does not apply to Boren Veterinary Medical Hospital employees who are solely involved in the delivery of veterinary clinical care to client animals, Oklahoma Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory employees who are solely involved in the handling and processing of animals, specimens, or samples submitted for pathologic examination and disease diagnosis, or students enrolled in an OSU offered course. (IACUC Policy No. 007)
The OHSP is managed by Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) personnel. Necessary forms for OHSP enrollment may be found on the EHS website (http://ehs.okstate.edu) under the tab "Occup" and the section “OHSP for Personnel with Animal Contact:”
If you have questions or need additional information about the OHSP, please contact the OHSP coordinator at 405-744-7243 or ohsp@okstate.edu