OHSS Clearance Requirement

• For full use (with animal contact) protocols, protocol personnel must fill out an OHSS assessment. The assessment must be cleared in order to request and obtain UC Santa Cruz IACUC approval.
• A subset of vertebrate sample use protocols and observation only protocols may require completion of OHSS. If so, you will be notified to do so by Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S). 

As part of the submission of an IACUC protocol for teaching, the instructor/Principal Investigator (PI) will complete the Exposure Assessment Form, which the IACUC office will forward to EH&S for review and risk category assessment.

The Exposure Assessment Form will include a brief description of the class/research, the species of animals involved, and a description of student contact with the animals.

If the contact with animals is determined to be a high risk (high probability of an adverse health effect; for example, a student working with wild-caught mammals or involved with lambing), the instructor must consult with EH&S to determine if completion of the OHSS medical screening for all students is necessary.

Risk categories:

• High risk—high probability of an adverse health effect.
• Low risk—low to moderate probability of adverse health effects.

Each PI or instructor will provide students enrolled in courses involving animals, independent study courses, or short-term student volunteers that will work with live, vertebrate animals with the following information:·      

• The availability of and the option to request medical evaluations and treatment.
• Hand-outs or the link to: General Information: Potential Hazards (zoonoses, allergies, and injuries), Universal Precautions and Personal Hygiene, Zoonotic Diseases & Risk Assessment.
• The link to the Hazard Assessment Tool.

The instructor will also advise students to contact the Student Health Center for consultation if they are pregnant, immunocompromised, diabetic, or have a history of allergies or other significant medical conditions.

The document IACUC Information for Students, Non-Affiliates, and Volunteers contains much of the generic information, but PIs are encouraged to work with EH&S (biosafety@ucsc.edu) to provide information relevant to the project.

For individuals who are listed on an animal care and use protocol or who work with live, vertebrate animals used in research or teaching and who are not UC Santa Cruz staff, faculty, or students:

1. The PI has the option of having the non-affiliates clear OHSS, or
2. The PI must affirm that non-affiliates have completed an occupational health and safety assessment at the individual’s home institution by checking a box in the non-affiliated personnel certification column in section A.3. of UCSC IACUC protocol application and amendment forms.