ESAFS

Overview

As a PI/ Spokesperson who has been awarded time to conduct an experiment at BioCAT, you are responsible for filling out and submitting all of the Safety Paperwork for your experiment sufficiently far in advance of the experiment (see the deadline section below). We recommend submission before these hard deadlines so any issues can be resolved and your experiment can proceed as planned.

The ESAF (Experiment Safety Assessment Form) is the primary piece of paperwork that the APS uses to verify the safety envelope of your experiment, and so it needs to be completed and submitted well ahead of your experimental start date.

The PI/ Spokesperson is also responsible for notifying their staff who will be visiting BioCAT to take all of the APS Core Safety Courses required by the Argonne/ APS Safety Oversight Committee. There are times when the Users have difficulty, for one reason or another, accessing the APS Safety Courses Web Portal. In cases like this, you may take them when you arrive at the APS/ BioCAT, but do understand that this will delay the participation of those people not fully trained and could delay the start of your experiment.

Please email the BioCAT Safety Officer, Mark Vukonich, if you have any questions regarding the ESAF or APS Safety Training.

ESAF Deadline

Argonne is currently enforcing hard-cutoff intervals with respect to the timing of the ESAF final submission dates. The cutoff is timed according to the experiment Start Date.

  • There is currently a two-week (14 day) hard-cutoff for ESAF submissions for on-site experiments.
  • There is currently a one-week (7 day) hard-cutoff for ESAF submissions for mail-in experiments.

ESAFs submitted after these cutoff intervals will be not be approved by the APS and the experiment will not be allowed to proceed. ESAFs must be submitted in their entirety by these interval cutoffs – without any missing information.

If your ESAF involves any of the additional hazards listed below it will require a more detailed (and, therefore, prolonged) review before access can be granted, so you should submit it at least 1 month before your experiment:

  • Bio-Hazardous Materials

    Experiments utilizing any of the following items will have to be coordinated far in advance with your Scientific Contact, Mark Vukonich (BioCAT BSO), and Nena Moonier (APS BSO) to be reviewed formally by the ANL Institutional Biosafety Committee(IBC) as well as the IIT IBC:

    • Human tissues or fluids (BSL2)
    • Animal tissues derived from diseased animals
    • Some plants and plant pathogens
    • Some viruses and bacteria
    • Some proteins which may be involved in causing disease or harmful effects of the disease process
    • Some sequences of DNA or RNA

    The Argonne IBC oversees the safety of all experimental participants and ratifies the proposed experimental protocol according to Centers for Disease Control, Department of Transportation, and Department of Agriculture regulations. This is a process which can take upwards of six months (or more); so consult with your Scientific Contact for IBC application instructions well in advance if you think your experiment might require the approval of the IBC.

  • Hazardous Materials

    The use of hazardous materials needs to be approved within the framework of your ESAF. The use of some hazardous materials requires the development and approval of protocols by the APS. While this is not prohibitive, it does sometimes present an additional time barrier in some cases. If your experiment requires the use of a hazardous material such as a corrosive, acid, base, toxin, etc. please consult with your Scientific Contact and allow extra time for the proper development of procedures for working with these substances and for the planning of transportation of these items.

  • Lasers

    Use of any other than a class I laser requires additional ANL-supplied training. You will need to schedule a few hours to complete this training. In addition, use of a class IIIb or IV laser will require a written Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and an on-site review of the assembled (but not aligned) laser system before work may begin. A class IV laser will require all operators to have an ANL-approved off-site eye examination.

    Note that BioCAT needs to know ahead of time if you intend to bring a laser (including laster pointers) to the APS. All lasers need to be presented to the BioCAT safety officer upon arrival at the beamline.

  • Electrical Equipment

    All electrical equipment which is not certified by a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL) (such as Underwriters Laboratories) or is modified will need to be inspected before it may be used at the APS. A listing of approved NRTLs is provided here.

ESAF Instructions

Below are instructions for filling out and submitting the ESAF.

Start the ESAF by going to the APS ESAF page and clicking the “Create New ESAF for Scheduled or Allocated Beam Time” link. You will then see a list of scheduled beamtime requests. Select the appropriate one by clicking the radio button in the “BTR #” column and then click the button which says “Select your action and click here to create ESAF for a SCHEDULED beam time request”.

Once you have created the ESAF, fill out each tab of the ESAF, paying particular attention to the instructions below. Please remember to fill out ALL Tabs of the ESAF!

General Tab

Mostly self-explanatory.

Description Tab

This tab should contain a short abstract of the experiment that you wish to perform at BioCAT, the associated hazards, and how you will mitigate those hazards.

Experimenters Tab

This tab must include a full list of people collaborating on the experiment.

  • The three user categories that BioCAT currently supports are:
    1. Mail-in - A user who will be shipping their samples and buffers to BioCAT.
    2. Off-site/Co-proposer - A user who is a collaborator, but this person has not been directly involved in the sample preparation or other aspects of the experiment.
    3. Onsite - A user who plans on being at BioCAT for the duration of their experiment to actively participate in the preparation and data-collection process.
  • If you intend on bringing any non-US Citizen to the APS, you must begin the User application process several weeks in advance to make a time allowance for the Security Background Checks/Approvals needed, if they are not currently an active User at the APS.
  • On this tab choose one Spokesperson (SP) for this experiment. This will be the user who has prepared the ESAF and can personally verify that all information contained therein is accurate and true. The spokesperson must be an (if possible) onsite user or a mail-in user, not an off-site/co-proposer. Please choose only one Spokesperson.
  • If all users on the proposal are mail-in users (note: BioCAT does currently support Remote-User experiments) you must electronically sign the ESAF on the ‘Experimenters’ Tab to personally verify that the statements and Materials declared in your ESAF are correct - there will be a link in the top third of the page that says, in red: “An Electronic Signature is required for this ESAF. A person designated as an “SP” must provide the signature. Click to provide the Signature.”

Materials Tab

This tab should contain a complete list of the samples, buffers, chemicals, and commercial chemical items which you intend on bringing or shipping to BioCAT.

  • When listing materials, sample names must be written out in full and (when appropriate) the expression system must be included. You should not use abbreviations with the exception of “DNA” and “RNA”, and sample names should be written as, e.g., “Lysozyme from Chicken Egg White” rather than “Sample 1.”
  • Near the bottom-half of the page there is the question “Will you require to use beamline laboratory facilities to prepare samples or perform other work?” Select “Y” if you intend on using our facilities to prepare your samples. Click on any other tab in the ESAF. A “Lab Use” tab will then be generated, which should be filled out.

Concerning the transport of samples, chemicals, and equipment – all items must be transported or shipped according to the Department of Transportation (DOT) Regulations, as well as, Argonne National Laboratory Regulations (which may be more restrictive than DOT Regulations).

This is best achieved by consulting with the shipping department of your home institution so that they may ship the chemicals according to the hazards that they present. Alternatively, chemicals needed in larger quantities which have an associated hazard may be purchased and shipped directly to BioCAT for your use while conducting the experiment. See our shipping page for more details.

Equipment Tab

List any equipment you plan on bringing to or using at the beamline on this tab.

If you plan on bringing any electronics to be used in your experiment (other than personal computers) check the ‘Electrical Equipment’ Box and the corresponding “Bringing to APS” box to schedule an electrical inspection. Click on any other tab in the ESAF. An ‘Electrical Inspection’ tab will appear, which should be filled out.

(See ‘Electrical Inspection Tab’ below for additional information)

Lab Use Tab

The ‘Lab Use’ Tab will be auto-generated when you click ‘Y’ for the first drop-down on the ‘Materials’ Tab asking the the question: ‘Will you require to use beamline laboratory facilities to prepare samples or perform other work?’

Some things to note:

  • Please tick the ‘Planned use of the chemical fume hood’ box if your experiment has been approved for any hazardous materials or if you plan on using strong acids or bases.
  • BioCAT does not have a Glovebox.
  • ‘Planned use of non-beamline supplied equipment’ compliments the ‘Equipment’ Tab and applies to any equipment which you will supply to be used in the Wet-Lab.

Electrical Inspection Tab

The ‘Electrical Inspection’ Tab is auto-generated when you check any of the ‘Equipment Information’ Boxes in the ‘Equipment’ Tab.

Please contact the BioCAT Electrical Safety Officer, Rick Heurich, if you are planning on bringing any electrical equipment(other than personal computers) to function as part of the experiment. He will help you schedule an electrical inspection, if the equipment needs one.

If you are bringing modified NRTL or non-NRTL equipment or unsure NRTL check the appropriate boxes and fill in the “List equipment that will require an inspection.”

Submit the ESAF

Please verify the completeness of your data before hitting the “Submit” button.

Finally, please feel free to ask for help.