Safety Guidelines
Safety Training
Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS)
Additional Guidelines for Students
Additional Guidelines for Instructors and Supervisors
Guidelines for Custodial Workers
Guidelines for Maintenance Workers
Electrical Hazards
Safety Guidelines
Educational laboratories and classrooms have Evacuation Plans posted in conspicuous locations. These plans show primary and secondary exit routes, fire extinguisher locations, fire alarm pull stations, safe rescue areas for the disabled, the nearest automated external defibrillator location, severe weather safe areas, and shelter-in-place safe areas. Please locate and become familiar with the
evacuation diagrams.
- Know the location of all exits for the laboratory and the building. Each exit in the building will have a lighted exit sign.
- Know the location and use of the safety showers, eyewashes, and first-aid kits.
- Know the location of the nearest phone that can be used in an emergency. Critical phone numbers should be posted near the phone.
- Know the potential hazards of the materials, facilities, and equipment with which you will work. If you are uncertain, ask your supervisor or contact EH&S.
- Use the proper safety equipment for your procedure. This could include a fume hood, glove box, biosafety cabinet, shields, or other equipment.
- Wear eye protection in the laboratory. Splash goggles are required for wet chemical work or work with corrosive dusts and powders.
- Wear personal protective gear when required by laboratory or experimental conditions. This could include laboratory aprons, laboratory coats, gloves, gauntlets, goggles, face shields, dust masks, respirators, and other equipment.
- Wear clothes that protect the body against spills, dropped objects, and other accidental chemical contact. Open shoes, sandals, bare feet, bare midriffs, and bare shoulders are prohibited.
- Long hair should be tied back or otherwise confined. Secure ties or other articles of clothing or jewelry that might become entangled in equipment.
- Eating, drinking, gum chewing, tobacco chewing, or application of cosmetics is prohibited where biological hazards, radioactive materials, or chemicals will be stored or used. Food must not be kept in refrigerators or cold rooms with chemicals or other hazardous materials.
- Do not pipet by mouth. Use only mechanical pipetting devices.
- Wash hands carefully before leaving the laboratory. Beware of contamination on clothing, doorknobs, doorframes, etc. Remove any protective gear (gloves, lab coats, etc.) before leaving the laboratory.
- Follow written protocols or instructions. Perform only authorized experiments. Do not create shortcuts to procedures.
- Do not move or disturb equipment in use without consent of the user.
- Do not leave equipment or reactions operating while unattended.
- Do not work alone in the laboratory after normal working hours.
- Do not horseplay in the laboratory.
- Follow good housekeeping practices -- clean up as you go and keep work areas, aisles, corridors, and exits uncluttered. Maintain clear accessibility to eyewash/emergency showers, fire extinguishers, and electrical panels.
- Report all accidents and injuries immediately to your laboratory instructor or supervisor.
- Report unsafe conditions to your instructor or supervisor.
Additional Guidelines for Students
- Know who is in charge of your laboratory.
- Perform only authorized experiments and be sure you understand the procedures involved before you begin. If anything unexpected, dangerous, threatening, or unmanageable happens, immediately call your instructor.
- Do not use unfamiliar equipment without instruction and permission.
- Behave and dress appropriately for work in a potentially hazardous place. Never horseplay in the laboratory.
- Report all accidents and injuries, however small, to your instructor.
Additional Guidelines for Instructors and Supervisors
- Take responsibility, in attitude and action, for the safety conditions of your laboratory.
- Go over the floor evacuation plans with each class and direct occupants to the nearest safe exit in case of an actual alarm.
- Observe safety procedures and see that they are enforced.
- Set an example by wearing protective equipment and by following proper laboratory procedures to promote safe work habits.
- Carefully review laboratory experiments for possible safety problems before the experiments are assigned to students.
- Make both preventive and remedial safety measures part of your instruction. Be sure students and laboratory workers are familiar with emergency procedures and equipment.
- Be alert for unsafe conditions. Inspect often; take effective corrective action promptly.
- Assume responsibility for visitors and require that they follow the same safety procedures as students and other laboratory workers.
- Keep a current file of information on laboratory safety, including this Laboratory Safety Manual. Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs), and equipment manuals should be readily available to students, visitors, and others. Encourage their use.
- Provide or arrange for all general safety and job specific training required for each employee under your direction as required by the Laboratory Safety Manual. Document all training.
Guidelines for Custodial Workers
- Rooms that have a Caution Sign or any other warning barriers on laboratory doors, may contain materials or equipment which, if used improperly, could cause harm.
- Any container (box, bottle, carton, etc.) that holds a potentially hazardous material should be clearly marked with an appropriate warning label. Do not touch, move or handle containers of any chemicals or materials in a laboratory. If chemicals need to be moved in order to perform your duties, have the laboratory supervisor or technician arrange for this to be done.
- If the contents of any laboratory container are spilled, do not touch it or attempt to clean it up. Evacuate the area, close the laboratory door as you leave, and contact the laboratory supervisor, laboratory technician, or EH&S.
- Wear protective goggles if there are people working in the laboratory.
- Do not eat, drink, apply cosmetics, handle contact lenses, or take medications in a laboratory.
- If you have any questions, contact the laboratory supervisor or technician first, your supervisor next, or EH&S.
- Chemical bottles should not be disposed as regular trash unless they have been completely emptied, rinsed with water, air dried, label defaced, and the cap removed. If in doubt about the containers, leave them in the laboratory.
- Before working in a laboratory or chemical fume hood, notify the laboratory supervisor or laboratory technicians about the problem, the length of time anticipated to accomplish the job, and when the work will be done. Before work starts, adequately notify lab workers so that all equipment that could be damaged can be turned off or moved.
- The laboratory supervisor is responsible for making sure your work area within the room is free from physical, chemical, and/or biological hazards. Your work area could include hoods, sinks, cabinets, and benches, bench tops, floors, and/or equipment. You may be required to repair, move, remove, replace, or paint as part of your work.
- Do not handle or move chemicals in the laboratory. If you need chemicals moved in order to perform your work, have the laboratory supervisor or technician arrange for this to be done.
- Generally, you should not move or handle equipment in the laboratory. If your work requires you to move, remove, or replace a piece of equipment, have the laboratory supervisor or technician assure you that the equipment is free of any physical, chemical, and/or biological hazards.
- Do not eat, drink, apply cosmetics, handle contact lenses, or take medication in the laboratory.
- In situations where the hazard cannot be totally removed, specific work procedures will be developed in conjunction with the laboratory supervisor or technician and EH&S.
- If there is a chance your work could bring you in contact with chemical hazards (e.g. working on laboratory sinks, working in areas where there is a chance of chemical contamination) or when working in rooms where chemical experiments are taking place, have the laboratory supervisor or technician provide you with the necessary protective equipment, including gloves and goggles.
- If you have any questions, contact the laboratory supervisor or technician first, your supervisor next, or finally EH&S at 2998.