IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS

• EHSD: TAMU Environmental Health and Safety Department.
• Employee: Any person (including students) who is on the payroll of TAMU or a Texas A&M University System (TAMUS) agency and who may be exposed to hazardous chemicals in the workplace under normal working conditions or a foreseeable emergency. Employees (e.g., secretaries and office workers) whose employment does not include routine exposure to hazardous chemicals are not covered by the THCA. THCA regulations also do not apply to students who are not employed by TAMU or a TAMUS agency.
• Laboratory Officer: Supervisor of scientific work areas and technical staff aboard the JOIDES Resolution.
• ODP: Ocean Drilling Program.
• Precursor Chemicals: The THECB and the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) developed an MOU intended to prevent diversion of equipment and chemicals from academic laboratories to the production of illicit drugs.
• TAMU: Texas A&M University.
• TAMU HazCom Program: Describes the procedures whereby the University complies with the THCA.
• Research Laboratory: A facility that engages only in research or quality control operations. Chemical specialty product manufacturing laboratories, full-scale pilot plant operation laboratories that produce products for sale, and service laboratories are not research laboratories. Chemical storerooms (unless accessible only through a research laboratory) and teaching laboratories are NOT research laboratories.
• Visiting Scientists: Scientists (excluding ODP Staff Scientists) that participate on a cruise on board the JOIDES Resolution.
• Science Party: Includes TAMU employees, participating scientists, observers, and contractors sailing aboard the JOIDES Resolution.
• Technically Qualified Individual: An individual with a professional education and background working in the research or medical fields, such as a physician, a registered nurse, or a person holding a college bachelor's degree in science.
• Workplace: All research facilities aboard the JOIDES Resolution operated by TAMU.
• Work Area: Room, laboratory, decks, or defined space in a workplace where hazardous chemicals are present, produced, used, or stored and where TAMU employees or visiting scientists are present.