Whether you are a professional chemist or a high school student taking a basic chemistry class, you will most likely have to interact in a laboratory setting sometime in your life. Laboratories can pose many health and safety risks to individuals, so it is important to follow specified sets of rules that have been instituted.

1. How to be Safe in a Laboratory
Whether you are a professional chemist or a high school
student taking a basic chemistry class, you will most likely
have to interact in a laboratory setting sometime in your
life. Laboratories can pose many health and safety risks to
individuals, so it is important to follow specified sets of
rules that have been instituted.
These rules will help you to stay safe in a laboratory setting.
One of the most important rules to follow in any laboratory is that safety goggles must be worn at all
times.
Always wear safety goggles
Even if you are not directly working with a fire or harmful chemical, you must still wear your safety
goggles. Safety goggles help protect the eyes from anything harmful that may be or occur in the lab.
It is strongly advised to not wear contact lenses in the lab. Fumes could get in your eyes and severely
damage the lenses.
Pants and closed toe shoes are clothing items that must be worn in the lab. This is to ensure that your
skin remains safe from any harmful chemicals or fire.
Food and drink
It is also crucial that no food or drink be brought into the lab. This is a rule for many reasons.
One reason is that if you’re drinking a beverage in the lab, it could become contaminated by a chemical
or substance that the lab is used in an experiment. Or the opposite could happen: your beverage could
contaminate the chemicals being used in the lab.
Both scenarios are extremely undesirable, so it is important to keep all food and drink out of the lab at
all times. It is also important that you do not experiment with any of the chemicals or materials in the
lab.
You should only perform those experiments that you are instructed to do or that you are permitted to
do. Experimenting with chemicals can lead to very dangerous circumstances that could result in injury or
even death.

2. Don’t taste the chemicals
It is important that you never taste any of the
chemicals that you work with in the lab. Also, never
directly smell any of the odors coming from a vapor or
gas.
Instead of putting your nose to the test tube or vial,
gently waft the smell with your cupped hand to your
nose. This will allow you to smell any fumes coming
from the gas without damaging your nose.
It is imperative that you wash your hands every day
right before you come into the lab. Our hands carry many germs and bacteria on them that could
contaminate chemicals and materials in the lab.
Make sure to learn where safety and first aid equipment is located within the lab. Safety equipment
includes safety goggles, fire extinguishers, emergency showers, and emergency eyewash stations.
Before handling a chemical, make sure you check the MSDS label and be sure of any potential hazards. If
you would like to be instructed on further points related to this topic, you can take classes on laboratory
training in Logan.
Stevens-Henager College offers these classes on laboratory training in Logan. Take these classes to
become more skilled and proficient in any laboratory setting.
Photo credit: Pasukaru76, TK-Link