Safety
Personal Protective Equipment
•Many states require by law that students wear approved
safety goggles or safety glasses when in the lab. This is
an absolute "MUST"!
•The following is not acceptable!
Proper attire:
•Avoid floppy garments; avoid things that dangle
•These get tangled up in equipment or glassware and cause accidents
•Avoid long, loose hair styles for the same reason.
•When Bunsen burners are in use, long hair sometimes catches on fire
•Avoid sandals
Fire Blanket
•Yank the blanket out of the wall holder.
•Wrap it around the victim to smother the fire.
Eyewash Fountain
•If you get something from the lab in your eye—
•GET IT OUT IMMEDIATELY!
•Run some water through the eyewash fountain before you use it.
•Retract your eyelid (hold it open);
•Don’t squint—this restricts water access.
•Run fresh water over your eye for several minutes.
•Go to the school nurse immediately afterward.
Use of the FUME HOOD
•Not every school will have a fume hood available.
•If your school has a FUME HOOD—use the HOOD for reactions that
give off vapors, especially smelly vapors.
•The draft of the HOOD will sweep away vapors so that the lab itself
maintains reasonable air quality.
Safety Shower
•Again, not every school will have one.
•Shower should be used for dire EMERGENCY only!
•If you (or a lab mate) is ON FIRE, position yourself (or your lab mate) under
the safety shower.
•Pull the handle—a deluge of water will result.
•Flames will be rapidly extinguished.
•The safety shower should also be used
if you suffer a massive spill of a
dangerous chemical on yourself
and need to get it off rapidly.
Broken Glass
•Sweep it up right away so that you don’t track in it all period.
•Place the broken glass in a "SHARP’S CONTAINER.
•This is a thick walled carton, that will be sealed and discarded as such.
Student Use of the Laboratory
•No UNAUTHORIZED experiments!
•These are terrible dangers in unskilled hands.
•No EATING or DRINKING in the LAB.
•A good practice is to assume everything in the lab is
toxic.
•DO NOT drink from lab equipment.
•NOT EVEN distilled water.
•TESTING of ODORS:
•Do NOT smell the flask directly.
•If you absolutely must test the odor, carefully waft the
vapor from the flask toward your nose with your hand.
•Keep the flask quite distant from your face.
•Make sure that test tubes are not directed toward
yourself or other persons.
•The chemicals may splatter out the tube.
•Add ACID to WATER instead of the reverse order of
addition.
•The heat generated will be less, but splattering still may
occur.
•A good practice in all lab operations is to keep things at
arm’s length.
•A GOOD PRACTICE:
•Read the experimental procedure ahead of lab.
•NOT as you do the procedure
Bunsen Burner Usage
•Make sure the rubber hoses are firmly attached.
•Both at the gas outlet and at the burner.
•Otherwise, the flame may "strike-back".
•Ask your teacher what this term means.
•Turn up the gas flow until you hear a gentle flow of gas.
•The match should be quenched with water, NOT thrown
into the waste directly.
•Light the burner by bringing the match UP from the
base toward the burner nozzle.
Avoid Horseplay
•In a laboratory setting, horseplay, even if good-natured, is
absolutely unacceptable.
•No pushing; no shoving.
•Serious accidents all too often result involving the
glassware or solutions in use.
•Ask your teacher about the disciplinary measures
in effect at your school for accidents in the lab
resulting from horseplay.