Bay Area Laboratory Decommissioning Checklist (EH&S-Ready)

Phase 1: Notify EH&S and Form the Team (T-6 to 8 weeks)

The clock starts the day the PI or lab manager emails the institutional EH&S office (or contracts an EH&S consultant for a private biotech with no in-house safety program). Per the Stanford EHS Lab Deactivation Guidelines, EH&S recommends scheduling an advisory inspection at least 60 days in advance for large moves. The NIH ORS Moving Your Laboratory Safely guide says the same: contact your safety specialist, environmental protection division, and area health physicist at least 6 to 8 weeks prior to the move.

Form a decommissioning team with named roles:

• PI / Lab Director: Final accountability. Signs off on chemical, biological, and radioactive material disposition.
• Lab Manager / Lab Move Coordinator: Owns the day-to-day execution and vendor coordination.
• EH&S Liaison: Institutional inspector or contracted consultant.
• Facilities Contact: Coordinates fume hood disconnect, electrical, plumbing, gas line disconnection.
• IT / Informatics: Owns instrument-PC decommissioning, NIST 800-88 data sanitization, LIMS cutover.
• Moving Vendor Contact: Sequences the physical move around the decommissioning windows.

Phase 2: Complete Equipment and Chemical Inventory (T-6 to 4 weeks)

Audit every piece of equipment, every chemical container, every biological material in the lab. Tag each item with one of four destinations:

1. Relocate: Goes with the lab to the new location.
2. Transfer: Going to a colleague's lab. Stanford EHS specifically recommends transferring surplus chemicals in good condition to colleagues well before the move date rather than disposing of them.
3. Dispose: Goes through hazardous waste pickup, biohazardous waste pathway, or radioactive material clearance.
4. Surplus: Goes to institutional surplus. Per the UMKC decommissioning flowchart, equipment going to surplus must have all hazardous-material warning signs, Authorized Users Lists, and chemical labels removed first.

For biotech labs with significant analytical instrument inventories, capture institutional knowledge during this phase. The Triumvirate Environmental decommissioning guide recommends interviewing lead researchers and facility managers during the inventory step to capture knowledge that gets lost when the lab vacates.

Phase 3: Schedule Certified Vendors (T-4 weeks)

The decommissioning vendor stack is non-negotiable. Get on every calendar early. The labs that miss deadlines are the labs that thought the moving company would handle this part.

Phase 4: Chemical Waste Disposal (T-3 weeks)

The most consistently published rule across all university EH&S guidance: dispose of unwanted chemicals before the move, not during. Per Stanford EHS, transfer only essential items that will be used in the new lab and leave nothing other than permanent fixtures and designated furniture in the deactivated lab space. Per Texas Tech EHS, dispose of non-hazardous materials by appropriate means and decontaminate the rest.

For Bay Area institutional labs (UCSF, Stanford, UC Berkeley, USF), this gets submitted through Environmental Health and Safety as a Chemical Waste Pickup request. For private biotech labs, this is a licensed hazardous waste vendor contracted directly. Either way, the manifest documentation is the auditable record. Keep copies.

Phase 5: Biological Waste Disposal and Surface Decontamination (T-2 weeks)

Per the WWU EHS lab closure toolkit, biological materials are removed from equipment, surfaces contaminated with biological agents are disinfected with a 1:10 bleach and water solution, and finally wiped down with 70% ethanol. The surfaces include the work surface and visible interior of biosafety cabinets, but not the HEPA filter or plenum. Those are the certified BSC decon vendor's scope in Phase 7.

Biohazardous waste goes through the university's approved third-party vendor for institutional labs, or through a licensed biological waste vendor for private labs. Sharps containers, biological waste bags, and any cultures get pulled and disposed through that pathway.

Phase 6: Radioactive Material Clearance (T-2 weeks)

For any lab that has handled radioactive material, the NIH ORS sequence is the published authority: clear the space of all radioactive material, then fully survey for radioactive contamination using swipe tests, then decontaminate as necessary, then follow up with further swipe tests. The Area Health Physicist must inspect and clear the space at least 48 hours before the final move. Without that clearance, the space cannot be released back to facilities.

Phase 7: BSC Decon, Fume Hood Disconnect, Regulated Equipment Decommissioning (T-1 week)

This phase concentrates the certified vendor work. The BSC vendor performs gas/vapor decontamination per NSF/ANSI 49 Annex G and places a decontamination sticker. EH&S places a clearance tag. Without both stickers the cabinet cannot be physically moved. Detailed BSC procedure in our companion post on how to decontaminate a biosafety cabinet before moving.

Fume hood removal requires consultation with the Building Coordinator, Facilities Services, and EH&S per Cornell EHS Section 2.1.4. Two reasons. Ventilation balance. And possible asbestos in ductwork or mercury in cup sinks. Asbestos must be removed by a certified asbestos vendor.

Regulated analytical equipment (mass spectrometers, gas chromatographs, irradiators) requires notification to the institutional Department of Radiological Safety per NIH ORS before relocation or surplus.

Phase 8: Final Clean and Hazard Sign Removal (Move week)

Per the Texas Tech EHS decommissioning checklist and the WWU lab closure toolkit:

Phase 9: EH&S Final Walkthrough and Sign-Off (T+0 to 7 days)

Per Cornell EHS Appendix E, EH&S staff from the chemical, biological, and radiation safety groups conduct a final walkthrough. If unsatisfactory, written notification details remaining action items to the PI and Department. Once cleared, sign-off documentation is filed.

The Bay Area life-science lease implication is significant. Most Mission Bay and South San Francisco lab leases require a documented EH&S decommissioning sign-off before the security deposit gets released. Missing documents at this phase can hold the deposit for months and trigger lease-end disputes. Keep clean records.

Documentation Package the EH&S Inspector Will Want

• Hazardous waste manifest (signed by licensed disposal vendor).
• Biological waste disposal records (institutional third-party vendor receipts).
• BSC decontamination certificate + sticker + EH&S clearance tag.
• Radioactive material final clearance from Radiation Safety Service.
• Fume hood disconnect and ductwork inspection record.
• Chemical Hygiene Blue Binder (or institutional equivalent) updated to reflect the new lab location.
• NIST 800-88 data sanitization certificates for any decommissioned IT hardware.
• IQ/OQ deactivation documentation for any GLP/GMP analytical instruments.
• Final walkthrough sign-off letter from EH&S.

Where the Moving Carrier Fits

The moving carrier is one of the 8 vendor lanes in the decommissioning stack. The mover's scope is the physical relocation of cleared equipment, sequenced around the certified vendor windows in Phases 6 and 7. A good asset-based carrier coordinates timing with the BSC vendor, the fume hood crew, the EH&S inspector, and the lab manager to keep the move ticket clean. We do not perform decontamination, clear radioactive material, or sign EH&S walkthrough documents. We coordinate around those activities and protect the equipment that survives them.

For the full Bay Area lab move scope including the equipment categories that follow decommissioning, see Ontrack Moving's laboratory relocation services. For the matching ULT freezer protocol when freezers are part of the relocate inventory, see How to Move a -80°C Ultra-Low Freezer. For the typical decommissioning + move budget, see our Bay Area Laboratory Move Cost Guide. For the realistic decommissioning + move timeline mapped against vendor windows, see How Long Does a Lab Move Take?. For the broader Bay Area lab vetting framework, see our Bay Area Laboratory Relocation Compliance Guide.

Frequently Asked Questions