Laboratory Safety Guidelines

General Safety Guidelines

1. Always be safety-conscious. Move about the laboratory in a safe manner.
2. Report all accidents. No accident is too small to report.
3. Know the locations of safety equipment in the laboratory; use only in emergencies. Know the location of fire exits.
4. Plan ahead. Become familiar with all of the health and safety hazards of equipment and chemicals in use. If you are not sure, ask.
5. Safety glasses (splash proof goggles) must be worn while working with any chemical that could be harmful to the eyes. Rubber aprons should be worn while carrying out many kinds of experiments.
6. Use Bunsen burners only at the direction of the teacher. Open flames are prohibited when flammable substances are in use in the laboratory. Never leave active burners unattended.
7. Confine long hair while working in the laboratory; watch for flames and machinery.
8. Always wash your hands thoroughly at the end of the laboratory period. When handling chemicals, keep your hands away from your face, eyes, and body, until they have been washed.
9. If a chemical is splashed or spilled on your skin, flush it away with plenty of water. If irritation or pain develops, report it immediately.
10. If you should get chemicals into your eyes, go directly to the eyewash fountain and gently flush with water. Report this immediately to your teacher.
11. Do not consume food or water while in the laboratory; never taste chemicals.
12. Keep desk tops clear of all books, clothing, and other personal property except necessary lab directions and notebooks; keep fume hoods clear and clean.
13. Returned cleaned equipment to its proper place when finished. Report any damage of equipment to the instructor.
14. Keep sinks clean and free of glassware.
15. Never return chemicals to stock bottles.
16. Handle only materials that you are assigned to work with.
17. Use acids and bases with caution. Wipe up spilled material at the direction of the teacher. Watch out for eyes, skin, and clothing.
18. Keep reagent bottles covered. Follow the correct procedure for opening reagent bottles.
19. Do not use unlabelled chemicals. Check label twice to be sure that you have the right bottle. Refer unlabelled containers to your teacher.
20. Follow all instructions, both written and verbal. If you think some changes in procedure are necessary or desirable, check with your teacher.

1. Broken glass - clean up immediately with brush and pan
2. Before inserting (or removing) glass tubing or thermometers into corks or stoppers, check with your teacher for proper procedure.

1. Keep a lighted burner away from clothing, books, or other combustibles. Lean away from top of Bunsen burner while it is being lit.
2. Hot glass looks just like cold glass. Use care when touching glass objects that have been heated.
3. To heat easily evaporated (volatile) flammable liquids, use a water bath, inside a fume hood if possible.
4. Do not heat anything inside a closed container.

1. To smell the contents of a container, use a "wafting" action of the hand as demonstrated by your teacher.
2. Use care to avoid splattering of solutions when heating to dryness.
3. Never use mouth for pipetting up poisons, corrosive liquids, organic solvents, live cultures, or contaminated materials. Use automatic pipettors at the direction of your teacher.
4. Always add acids to water slowly, carefully, and with a gentle stirring action (solid glass rod only). This should generally be done in a large open beaker. Avoid overheating which often accompanies too rapid mixing. ACID INTO WATER... never the reverse.

1. Before connecting equipment to a power source, examine all wiring for electrical defects and improper installation.
2. Make sure that all equipment is properly grounded and that you are NOT.
3. Make sure that your hands are dry; that the work area is dry.
4. Be certain that the proper voltage is available.
5. Follow directions. If you are unsure of any procedure, ask your teacher.

Laboratory Safety Amendment

Rule: Any student found doing a laboratory experiment without safety glasses will be assigned "T" minutes of lab clean-up. The actual cleanup may
be done any time within 48 hours of the infraction (so long as "n" < 289; see below).

"T" = 10 minutes * n, where "n" is the number of times the student's work has been arrested for the infraction.

Rationale for the rule:

Two major safety problems faced were

(1) Many of our students no longer appeared to respect the wearing of safety goggles in the laboratory despite our high fashion, state of the art, bright green goggles.

(2) Many of our students no longer appeared to respect the need for a clean and orderly laboratory, preferring a laboratory condition which better reflected the quality of their own lab work, as they proceeded to disprove virtually every chemical law known to man.

Since the presence of safety problem number 1 exacerbated the effects of safety problem number 2, the intent of the rule change is to prevent the coexistence of these conditions.

The rule was first adopted in the spring and had the unexpected advantage of early identification of those chemistry students clearly determined to prepare for a life washing dishes in the kitchens of fine restaurants.

A corollary which we are considering is that any student found leaving glassware in the sink will be required to wear safety goggles during lectures.

This rule has not yet been adopted.