Principles of Lab Safety

Standard working procedure

The overall Laboratory protection manual offers regularly occurring protection recommendations and fashionable running techniques for laboratories on campus. Be conscious that this file contains a minimum set of recommendations, regulations, and suggestions required to preserve secure working surroundings, and does now not offer laboratory workers, research college students, or teaching assistants with particular standard running techniques necessary to work in their respective laboratories. It is the responsibility of the principal Investigator to broaden particular standard working procedures for his/her laboratory.

General safety recommendations

Preferred running methods should be effortless to be had to all laboratory personnel. The following recommendations have been mounted to reduce or take away dangers inside the laboratory. These hints have additionally been furnished to keep a secure laboratory environment. It is the responsibility of everyone that enters into the laboratory to understand the safety and health hazards associated with ability hazardous materials and gadget inside the laboratory. It is also the person's obligation to exercise the following general safety guidelines at all times:

1.Always put on right eye protection in chemical paintings, dealing with and garage regions. Contact lenses must commonly not be worn. Fitted goggles are vital if, for healing cause, contact lenses need to be worn.

2.Constantly recognize the hazards associated with the materials that are being utilized in the lab.

3.Always put on suitable shielding apparel or clothing . Cowl shorts, cutoffs or miniskirts with a suitable lab coat or apron.

4.Confine lengthy hair and unfastened apparel. Do no longer wear excessive-heeled shoes, open-toed footwear, sandals or shoes fabricated from woven fabric.

5.Usually, wash hands and palms with soap and water earlier than leaving the work location. This is applicable even if you have been wearing gloves.

6.Never carry out any unsafe work when by myself in the laboratory. As a minimum, two human beings must be present. Undergraduate college students must be supervised by a trainer at all times.

7.By no means perform unauthorized paintings, preparations or experiments.

8.In no way engage in horseplay, pranks or other acts of mischief in chemical or biological work areas.

9.By no means put off chemical substances, organic retailers, or radioactive materials from the facility without right authorization.

10.Be familiar with the vicinity of the emergency system - fireplace alarm, fire extinguisher, emergency eye wash, and protection bathe. Realize the right emergency response procedures.

11.Use equipment and hazardous materials most effective for their meant functions.

12.Never mouth pipet chemical compounds whilst shifting solutions . Rather, you need to constantly use a pipet bulb to transfer solutions.

13.Constantly lubricate glass thermometers, or thistle tubes earlier than placing them right into a stopper. Always wrap toweling round them whilst inserting into the stopper.

14.Use a hood every time there's an opportunity of poisonous or tense fumes being emitted.

15.In no way leave an experiment unattended while it is being heated or is hastily reacting.

16.Maintain gadget returned from the brink of the lab bench to prevent spillage.

17.Assist all beakers and flasks with clamps. Do now not use cracked or chipped glassware.

18.Document and report any accident, however, minor straight away.

Drinking,eating and smoking

Eating, consuming, smoking, gum chewing, making use of cosmetics, and taking the medicinal drug in laboratories is precisely prohibited.

1.Meals, liquids, cups, and other consuming and eating utensils need to now not be stored in areas where unsafe materials are treated or saved.

2.Glassware used for laboratory operations ought to by no means be used to put together or eat meals or beverages.

3.Laboratory refrigerators, ice chests, cold rooms, ovens, and so forth ought to now not be used for meals garage or guidance.

4.Laboratory water sources and deionized water ought to now not be used for ingesting water.

5.Laboratory materials have to never eat up or tasted.

House responsibilities and renovation

In the laboratory, keeping matters smooth and organized can help provide a more secure surroundings. Keep drawers and cupboard doors closed and electrical cords off the floor to keep away from tripping risks. Hold aisles clear of limitations together with bins, chemical boxes, and different garage items that might be positioned there. Avoid slipping hazards by means of cleansing up spilled liquids directly and via retaining the ground free of the free system together with stirring rods, glass beads, stoppers, and different such hazards. In no way block or even partially block the course to an go out or to the protection device, along with a protection bathe or fireplace extinguishers. Use the specified technique for the proper disposal of chemical wastes and solvents. Substances and laboratory device on cabinets must have sufficient clearance in order that, in a case of a fire, the hearth sprinkler heads are capable of performing their feature. The laboratory working region has to be saved easy and uncluttered, with hazardous materials and device nicely saved. smooth the work vicinity upon finishing a mission\work and at the cease of the day. The custodial staff is only predicted to perform routine obligations such as cleaning the ground and emptying the overall trash.

In training for any preservation carrier such as fumehood restore, plumbing, electric and so on. The laboratory team of workers has to prepare the laboratory earlier than the upkeep personnel arrives. Each time possible cast off hazards that protection personnel may additionally come upon at some stage in their working activities. For example, infectious agents, radioactive substances or chemical substances should be moved to a secure area previous to initiation of protected working. Additionally, the foremost Investigator or Laboratory Coordinator ought to escort Plant Operations personnel into the laboratory and tell them of the presence of any unsafe materials prior to the work being performed. The EHRM recommends that protection employees be supervised always at the same time as in the laboratory.

Hazardous waste storage and Disposal

Individual users of unsafe materials have specific obligations and responsibilities under state and federal law and college coverage concerning dangerous waste coping with and disposal. These duties include hazardous waste identity and waste minimization as well as right waste storage and disposal. The Environmental health and threat control branch is charged with the responsibility for making sure that unsafe waste generated on campus is disposed of according with all applicable rules. Unsafe waste needs to be treated through the EHRM risky waste site once the generator has determined that it can't be recycled or handled on site. Each generator (laboratory) need to whole the UH hazardous Waste Pickup Request form on-line to facilitate EHRM putting off and appropriately coping with the waste. All folks that are detailed to prepare laboratory waste disposal have to attend the EHRM dangerous Waste methods magnificence.

References:

D greenwood, Slack RCB and J Peutherer.Medical microbiology.2001.

JG College, AG Fraser and BP Marmion.Practical Medical microbiology.Fourteenth Edition. Churchill Livingstone, 1996.

JP Micheal, ECS Chan and NR Krieg.Microbiology.Fifth Edition. Delhi: Mcgraw-hill, 1993.

M Cheesbrugh.Medical laboratory manual for tropical countries.London, 2007.