Headaches for the laboratory boss
What kinds of emergency situations can you anticipate?
Fires, explosions, electrical shocks, bleeding, burns, poisonings, slips and falls, spills, and natural disasters should be considered.
What about other medical emergencies and utilities failures. Are you prepared to deal with these kinds of problems?
Do you have written procedures describing what to do?
Do you have the necessary safety equipment and emergency equipment such as deluge showers, eye wash fountains, first aid kits, fire blankets, and fire extinguishers?
What about gloves, goggles, and lab coats? What are the generally recognized safety practices that a reasonable person would follow before experimenting?
Carefully reading labels and MSDS’s is a good beginning.
Hand washing when finished is another.
Have you considered reducing the scale of the experiment, substituting less hazardous chemicals or eliminating the experiment altogether?
