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PI Space Glossary

PI - Principal Investigator (PI) or supervisor of each laboratory or facility space, this person is responsible for complying with EHS regulations and good practices in his/her laboratory or facility space. The PI or supervisor has final-line responsibility for performing his or her responsibilities under the MIT Environmental Health and Safety Management System (EHS-MS); and for ensuring that the laboratory or facility space under his or her purview satisfies EHS requirements.

EHS Rep - The EHS Representative(s) assists the PI or facility supervisor in achieving EHS requirements in the laboratory or facility space. Each laboratory or facility space where regulated EHS activities occur has one or more EHS Representatives. An EHS Rep is optional at the roomset level but if one is entered, it will become the default EHS Rep for every room in the roomset.

SARA Reporter - The SARA (Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act) Reporter is responsible for completing and submitting the SARA Inventory annually.

Secondary PI - Principal Investigator who shares space in the primary PI's space (Shared Room). A Shared Room is only inspected once under the primary PI's name.

EHS Rep - The EHS Representative(s) assists the PI or facility supervisor in achieving EHS requirements in the laboratory or facility space. Each laboratory or facility space where regulated EHS activities occur has one or more EHS Representatives. An EHS Rep is optional at the roomset level but if one is entered, it will become the default EHS Rep for every room in the roomset.

Emergency Contact - Information that is collected for emergency response and can be retrieved by two methods. One method is a green card containing public and phone information for the contacts and is posted outside the room. Another is an online method for emergency responders with access to the website. The information online may contain a private emergency phone number that is suppressed in the Green Card.

Roomset - A method for maintaining all registered rooms for a PI or supervisor. Each PI or supervisor needs at least one roomset per DLC affiliation. Since each roomset maps to one inspection report, the type of research or work organizes most roomsets.

Roomset Name Identifies the roomset and is provided by the EHS Coordinator/EHS Office. Common names include the last name of the PI/supervisor or a description of the research.

Subroom - A method to divide a room into distinct spaces and is shared by multiple PIs. Each PI can have his or her space registered in the system along with the contacts and hazards. Each subroom will have to be inspected separately in the system.

Subroom Name - Indentifies the subroom and is provided by the EHS Coordinator/EHS Office.

Shared Room - Rooms with one primary PI and one or more secondary PIs. A Shared Room is only inspected once under the primary PI's name.

Green Card - A method for posting emergency contact information outside the door of every laboratory. The green card contains the public contact information for the PI, EHS Rep, EHS Coordinator and emergency contacts.

SARA - As part of the EPA's Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA), Congress decreed that facilities that use large quantities of hazardous chemicals must inform the local community of their presence and work with local fire departments to plan for accidents and releases. These requirements to inform the public of chemical use and storage are known by the acronym EPCRA, or Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act. This means that once a year MIT compiles a targeted inventory of acutely toxic chemical substances and substances that are present in aggregate in greater than 10,000 lbs.

SARA Period The annual period during which SARA Reporters collect and submit the SARA inventory. The period begins November 1st and should be submitted within a few weeks. This gives the EHS Office enough time to verify the data and submit a report to local and state agencies by March 1st.

SARA Worksheet - A printable worksheet that the SARA Reporter can take through the laboratory to collect the SARA Inventory. The worksheet contains all of the chemical, fuels, and oils that MIT needs to report to the state and local agencies as well as the data that were submitted from last year.

Core Hazard Types - Used for the registration of potential hazards classes that exist in spaces. The core hazards include: Chemical, Biological Materials, Ionizing Radiation Sources, Non-ionizing Radiation Sources, Flammable Liquids > 10 Gal., Highly Reactive Materials and Large Vol Oil > 55 gal 1Cntr. The system also has the ability to register more specific potential hazards.

DLC Affiliation - The DLC affiliation is the Department, Lab or Center in which the PI is performing the research or work. It does not have to match the Human Resources appointment. PIs can have multiple DLC affiliations through the setup of multiple roomsets.

Active A roomset that contains at least one space that contains hazards or is being used for research.

Decommission in Process The status that is used to delete all rooms within the roomset for the current PI. The EHS Coordinator would sets this value and the EHS Office sets the roomset to Decommissioned when all of the rooms are clean of all hazards.

Decommission Complete - That status that is used when the EHS Office finalizes the deletion of a roomset. This occurs after all of the rooms are cleaned of all hazards.

Inactive - A room that is administrative, does not contain hazards, or is not being used for research. It is optional to inspect inactive rooms.

Inspect/Do Not Inspect - The status of whether a room needs to be inspected. While inspection is optional for inactive rooms, all active rooms have to be inspected