Latest News

Meet Lifelong Aggie, Travis Burns, Our New Chem Bio Specialist

Travis Burns has been supporting UC Davis since his undergrad days— livening up Picnic Day playing in marching band, working his way through various labs on campus and, most recently, taking on the role as our new Chem Bio Specialist in the department of EH&S.

In his new position, Travis will be supporting biosafety, chemical hygiene and chemical safety, overseeing biological use authorizations and the safe handling of controlled substances.

 

 

Benton Best Takes on Campus Emergency Manager Role

Since starting this October, Benton has been forming relationships with departments across UC Davis— reviewing and preparing action plans with Fire, Police, UC Davis Health and more.

UC Radiation Update to Change Request

UC Radiation Releases an Update

Going forward any changes to Radiation or Machine Use authorizations in the Risk and Safety Solutions UC Safety Radiation platform will be simplified. Instead of allowing end users to make changes directly to the RUA/MUA, they will be led to a dialogue box where they can describe the desired changes and submit them to the Safety Services Radiation Admin team for review and implementation. This is an improvement on the existing platform because the EH&S Radiation team could not see what changes were being implemented.

 

Top Tips for Complying with Yolo County Hazardous Waste Requirements - Avoid Fines During Your Inspection

Every 3 years, the Yolo County Hazardous Materials Division (CUPA), inspects each department on campus that handles hazardous waste to ensure we are in compliance with the Hazardous Materials Business Plan(HMBP).  Listed below are the top 5 CUPA violations here on the UCD campus. These 5 violations cover 99% of the violations we receive each year.  Take care of these issues, and your inspection should be quick (< 5 minutes) and painless.   

1.  Training

Airgas Liquid Nitrogen Service Changes

Airgas, UC’s main supplier for liquid nitrogen for cryogenic storage, has notified UC that Airgas delivery drivers can no longer perform certain high-risk functions that fall outside of contracted services. 

Monkeypox Overview

Overview:

Monkeypox is a rare disease that is caused by infection with the monkeypox virus. Monkeypox virus belongs to the Orthopoxvirus genus which includes the variola (smallpox) virus as well as the vaccinia virus, which is used in the smallpox vaccine. Monkeypox can be spread from infected humans, animals, and materials contaminated with the virus. In May 2022, cases of Monkeypox were identified outside of Africa unrelated to travel or animal exposure. This outbreak has grown considerably since then, with over 25,000 global cases and 7000 in the United States alone.

Yemi Olowoyeye Accepts Promotion in Risk Management

Safety Services' Yemi Olowoyeye has been promoted to a Worker’s Compensation Analyst with Risk Management.

Starting as an Assistant for Occupational Health in 2012, Yemi accepted a role as a Risk Analyst in 2018 and has been helping improve campus operations ever since. 

EH&S Director Plotkin Accepts New Role at UCLA

UC Davis Environmental Health & Safety Director, Curtis Plotkin, has accepted the role of Assistant Vice Chancellor for Environment, Health & Safety at UCLA. Curtis’ last day at UC Davis will be July 22 and a recruitment to fill his position will be launched immediately.

Curtis joined UC Davis in 2015, from UC Riverside, stepping into an EH&S director position that was vacant for a while, and his challenge was to improve all our safety programs, partnerships, and regulatory requirements.