Health and Safety Considerations

Abstract

All laboratories should have standardized health and safety rules and practices. These can vary from region to region due to differences in legislation. Before beginning new experiments, please consult your local safety guidelines. Failure to follow these rules could result in accidents, fines, or a closure of the laboratory. Consider the following guidelines in this chapter applicable to all laboratories.

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

More information on general laboratory practices is available (Barker 2005).

2.1 Guidelines

• 1. Always wear a laboratory coat in the laboratory. Remove the coat when exiting the lab to avoid contaminating people with the things you are protecting yourself from.

• 2. Wear eye protection (special safety goggles) when working with chemicals or anything that you don’t want entering your eye.

• 3. Wear gloves to protect your hands from dangerous materials, and to protect your samples from contamination. Standard laboratory gloves made of latex or nitrile are suitable for the methods described. Powder-free gloves are advised when using equipment with precision optics. Do not touch common items like the telephone, door handles, or light switches with gloves as the next person touching those items may not be protected from hand contamination. The same rule applies to mobile phones. Remove gloves before leaving the laboratory.

• 4. Wear proper foot protection, and avoid open toe footwear and high heels.

• 5. Wear clothing that covers your legs. Avoid loose fitting clothing that can be caught in machinery or be passed over an open flame.

• 6. Familiarize yourself with emergency procedures. Know where the nearest eyewash station and shower are located. Know where the nearest first aid kit is located, and locate the list of emergency telephone numbers.

• 7. Consult the Materials Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for the chemicals you will be using. These sheets should come with the chemicals. They provide information on health risks, first aid measures, fire and explosion data, how to deal with accidental release (spills), handling and storage, and guidelines for personal protection. If you don’t have the MSDS, you can find them by doing a web search of the item with MSDS in the title. Note that it is a best practice to review the MSDS supplied by the manufacturer of the chemical you have in your own laboratory. Similar chemical names or other formulations may result in misleading web search results.

• 8. Locate the emergency spill kit to handle accidental spillage of hazardous materials. If your laboratory is not equipped, consider preparing one (see Sect. 2.2).

• 9. Don’t rush. If you are unfamiliar with a piece of equipment, or concerned about the safety of a procedure, stop! Make sure you know what you are doing and the risks associated with the procedures before you begin. Many laboratories use a written standard operating procedure (SOP) that is followed during the initial performance of a protocol or procedure and made available for future reference. Check with the procedures of your laboratory and consider employing an SOP approach.

2.2 Preparation of a Home-Made Chemical Spill Kit

All laboratories should contain a kit for chemical spills. While spill kits are commercially available, self-prepared ones can be made at a fraction of the cost. Key materials and their use are found in Table 2.1. The kit should be designed to handle a spill from the largest volume of chemical you have in the laboratory. For detailed guidelines please refer to the “Guide for Chemical Spill Response Planning in Laboratories” prepared by the American Chemical Society (http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/about/governance/committees/chemicalsafety/publications/guide-for-chemical-spill-response.html).

Table 2.1 Components of a chemical spill kit and their uses^a