Exposure
Splash, needlestick, cut, or anything on skin or in eyes.
Do this now
1. Flush. Fifteen minutes. Start before you do anything else.
- Skin, cut, or puncture — soap and water, 15 minutes
- Eye or mucous membrane — eyewash, 15 minutes, continuously
Someone else makes the calls while you are at the eyewash. Do not stop flushing to find a phone.
2. Tell everyone in the room, so nobody else walks into it.
3. Remove contaminated PPE, turning exposed surfaces inward, into a leak-proof bag.
4. Go for medical care. If lentiviral vector was involved, take the lentivirus Post-Exposure Plan with you. It is the only Post-Exposure Plan this lab has — there is none for AAV and none for human material, so for those, tell the clinician what you were working with rather than looking for a document.
| Mon–Fri 7 a.m.–4 p.m. | Occupational Health, CHS 17-240 — (310) 825-6771 |
| Nights, weekends, holidays | Ronald Reagan Emergency Room, 757 Westwood Plaza — (310) 825-2111 |
Say it is an occupational laboratory exposure and needs immediate attention.
5. Tell the PI.
6. Report to the EH&S Biosafety Hotline within 8 hours — (310) 825-9797, option 3. Leave a voicemail if nobody answers.
7. Log it in the lab’s Incident and Near Miss Log.
Time limits that actually bite
| Lentiviral vector | Post-exposure prophylaxis must start within 2 hours. Take the lentivirus Post-Exposure Plan with you. |
| Bloodborne pathogen exposure | Most effective within hours. Go immediately. |
| Reporting to EH&S | 8 hours |
| Workers’ Compensation paperwork | 24 hours |
If you do not know which agent was involved, treat it as the most hazardous one it could have been, and go now.
Tell the clinician
- What you were working with, and what else was on the sharp — a needle used in an animal, or in a culture containing another agent, may carry the risk that matters most
- Any medication you take or condition you have that affects treatment
- That the UCLA Institutional Biosafety Committee considers treatment for recombinant viral vector exposure emergent
Serious injury or fire
Call 9-1-1 first. Give first aid. Warn responders if there is a risk of exposure to infectious agents so they can protect themselves. Then report to EH&S at (310) 825-9797.
Reviewed 27 August 2026 against the lab’s Biosafety Use Authorization.
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