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The provisions of this Section shall be severable and if any Section, part or portion hereof shall be held invalid for any purpose by any court of competent jurisdiction, the decision of such court shall not affect or impair any remaining Section, part or portion thereof.
(CBC 1985 11-5B.3; Ord. 2001 c. 9)
As a commonwealth, regional, national and international medical, educational and commercial center, the city is home to over 5,000 laboratories advancing cutting edge technologies and techniques that seek to benefit the residents of the city, the residents of the commonwealth and the United States and the population of the world. In this pursuit, however, many laboratories utilize or generate radioactive, infectious, toxic, hazardous or noxious substances, chemicals or conditions. These substances, chemicals or conditions have the latent and actual capacity to inflict grave harm upon people ill-equipped to manage their harmful conditions in the event of a public health or public safety emergency. The primary responders (for example, BFD, BPD and/or EMS) do not currently have information that may prove critical to their emergency response—they do not know where all of the laboratories are located in the city and they do not know what is contained within these laboratories. These Sections, by requiring registration of laboratories and inspections of laboratories, will, once fully implemented, ensure that the public safety and public health personnel have the information that they need to adequately, effectively and safely respond to any emergencies occurring within laboratories in order to protect the welfare of the laboratory, the neighborhood and the greater population.
(CBC 1985 11-5C.1;Ord. 2006 c. 4)
For the purpose of this Section, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning. Unless specifically indicated otherwise, the definitions contained in Sections 11-4, 11-5 and 11-5A shall apply and control in these Sections.
CITY. The City of Boston.
COMMISSIONER. The Commissioner of the Boston Fire Department.
LABORATORY. A building, room or workplace designed and/or used for the development, conduct or observation of scientific, including, but not limited to, the medical, chemical, physical or biological disciplines, experimentation or research, including non-routine testing, analysis, experimentation or other similar activities that involve the use or storage of hazardous materials as defined by Section 20.02(C) of the Boston Fire Department Fire Prevention Code. Specifically excluded from this definition are classroom laboratories, dark rooms, autoclave rooms, pharmacies, drug stores, physician’s offices or the offices of other direct-care health care providers, hospital or health care dispensaries or other facilities providing medication directly to patients.
LABORATORY FACILITY. A building or a portion of a building containing one or more laboratories operated by a single owner-operator. No laboratory facility may be comprised of more than one building or physical address.
OWNER. A person or entity that owns a laboratory or a laboratory facility.
OWNER-OPERATOR. A person or entity that operates a laboratory and shall include an owner-operator’s duly authorized Agent.
(CBC 1985 11-5C.2; Ord. 2006 c. 4)
(A) (1) On or after January 1, but no later than April 1 of every calendar year subsequent to the year of a laboratory’s or a laboratory facility’s initial registration, every owner-operator shall register with the Commissioner each and every laboratory or laboratory facility of the owner-operator which shall include the most current information available to the owner-operator, but in no event shall that information be less recent than December 31 of the prior calendar year. The Commissioner shall prepare the forms for registration which shall require the owner-operator to identify:
(a) The name and contact information of the owner-operator;
(b) The physical address of each and every laboratory facility of the owner-operator; and
(c) The names and contact information of one or more emergency coordinator(s) for each laboratory facility location.
(2) The forms for registration shall require the owner-operator to certify that the laboratory facility is in compliance with Boston Fire Prevention Code 86-1 with respect to the posting of signage for the identification of hazardous materials located within a laboratory and a laboratory facility. The forms for registration shall require the owner-operator to certify that it has adopted an internal set of written policies, practices and/or procedures to ensure compliance with these Sections.
(B) The emergency coordinator identified in the registration may be a 24 hour per day, seven days per week, 365 days per year operations center of the owner-operator; provided that the operations center has 24 hour per day, seven days per week, 365 days per year access to an individual with proficiency and knowledge of the facilities and operations in the laboratory or laboratory facility related to the requirements of these Sections.
(C) All registration forms shall be completed by the owner-operator of the laboratory or laboratory facility and executed by the owner-operator under the pains and penalties of perjury.
(D) The Commissioner may develop and provide a process for an electronic method of registration by owner-operators.
(E) For public safety purposes only, the Commissioner shall, on or before July 1 of every calendar year, prepare a database of the information collected pursuant to the registration of laboratories and/or laboratory facilities which shall be accessible by the Boston Fire Department, the Boston Police Department, the Boston Public Health Commission, the Boston Emergency Medical Services, the Boston Emergency Management Agency and the Inspectional Services Department and which shall be added to the city’s Public Safety Computer-Aided Dispatch (“CAD”) System. The Commissioner shall make a hard copy of this database available to its district stations.
(F) As long as they are located within the same building and at the same physical address, an owner-operator may elect to aggregate laboratories into a laboratory facility for purposes of these Sections. In no event may a laboratory or a laboratory facility include laboratories or laboratory facilities that are not in the same building and at the same physical address.
(CBC 1985 11-5C.3; Ord. 2006 c. 4)
Each laboratory and/or laboratory facility shall comply with Boston Fire Prevention Code 86-1, as it may be revised or replaced, with respect to the posting of signage for the identification of hazardous materials located within the laboratory and/or laboratory facility.
(CBC 1985 11-5C.4; Ord. 2006 c. 4)
(A) The owner-operator of each laboratory and/or laboratory facility shall maintain hard copy or soft copy of information, or the means to immediately obtain the information, at the laboratory or laboratory facility that, in an emergency, shall be immediately available to the owner-operator and to the first responders such as the Boston Fire Department, the Boston Police Department or Emergency Medical Services, as well as other local, commonwealth, regional or federal public health or public safety Agencies that may be required to respond to an emergency or incident at a laboratory or a laboratory facility and that includes, at a minimum, the following:
(1) Floor plans or other means or materials to assist first responders in locating laboratories within a laboratory facility;
(2) Name and contact information of at least one emergency coordinator for the laboratory or laboratory facility who is knowledgeable about the nature of the operations and/or the hazards that may be located or who has immediate access to a person who is knowledgeable about the nature of the operations and/or the hazards that may be located in the laboratories located within the laboratory facility;
(3) Access cards and/or keys to all laboratories in the laboratory facility; and
(4) Any additional information reasonably requested by the Boston Fire Department during its pre-incident planning process with the owner-operator to identify the means by which a first responder may obtain information about special or unique hazardous materials that might be present in specific laboratories, including material safety data sheet access instructions for those materials where an emergency response may require unique protection of person or property.
(B) The Commissioner is authorized to augment this list through the promulgation of regulations upon consultation with the technical advisory group appointed pursuant to these Sections.
(CBC 1985 11-5C.5;Ord. 2006 c. 4)
(A) In order to ensure that the public health and the public safety are protected and the city first responders are protected from the potential hazards that may be posed by laboratories and/or laboratory facilities, on or before the first anniversary of the passage of these Sections and subsequent to analysis of the information collected through the registration processes required by these Sections, the Commissioner shall implement a program of inspection of laboratories and/or laboratory facilities. At the discretion of the Commissioner, this programmatic inspection may require full physical inspections of the laboratories and/or laboratory facilities or may require only inspection of the laboratories’ or laboratory facilities’ compliance with the registration requirements, emergency preparedness including, but not limited to, the information required to be readily available to first responders, and signage.
(B) The Commissioner may collaborate and cooperate with the Commissioner of the Inspectional Services Department in developing a program of inspections.
(C) If any owner-operator knowingly impedes, inhibits, interferes with, restricts or obstructs entry and free access to the laboratory and/or the laboratory facility for the purposes delineated in these Sections, then the Commissioner and/or the Commissioner of the Inspectional Services Department may seek in a court of competent jurisdiction an inspection warrant that allows for the inspection of the site and apprises said owner-operator concerning the nature of the inspection, the scope of the inspection, the justification for the inspection and may seek the assistance of the law enforcement community in presenting said warrant.
(D) If any person knowingly impedes, inhibits, interferes with, restricts or obstructs entry and free access to the laboratory and/or the laboratory facility for the purposes delineated in these Sections, then the Commissioner or the Commissioner of the Inspectional Services Department may seek in a court of competent jurisdiction an inspection warrant that allows for the inspection of the site and apprises said person or other person concerning the nature of the inspection, the scope of the inspection, the justification for the inspection and may seek the assistance of the law enforcement community in presenting said warrant.
(CBC 1985 11-5C.6; Ord. 2006 c. 4)
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