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The Laboratory Safety Institute's Laboratory Safety Guidelines

The Laboratory Safety Institute outlines comprehensive safety guidelines for laboratories, emphasizing the importance of a written health and safety policy, regular training, and involvement of all personnel in safety practices. It categorizes safety steps into those requiring minimal and moderate expenses, detailing actions such as conducting inspections, providing personal protective equipment, and maintaining proper chemical storage. The guidelines aim to create a safe laboratory environment through proactive measures and emergency preparedness.

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11 views2 pages

The Laboratory Safety Institute's Laboratory Safety Guidelines

The Laboratory Safety Institute outlines comprehensive safety guidelines for laboratories, emphasizing the importance of a written health and safety policy, regular training, and involvement of all personnel in safety practices. It categorizes safety steps into those requiring minimal and moderate expenses, detailing actions such as conducting inspections, providing personal protective equipment, and maintaining proper chemical storage. The guidelines aim to create a safe laboratory environment through proactive measures and emergency preparedness.

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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The Laboratory Safety Institute’s Laboratory Safety Guidelines

Steps Requiring Minimal Expense

1. Have a written Health, Safety & Environmental Affairs (HS&E) policy.


2. Organize a departmental HS&E committee including employees, management, faculty,
staff, and students.
3. Develop an HS&E orientation program for new employees and students.
4. Encourage students and employees to care about their safety and the safety of others.
5. Assign specific safety responsibilities to all students and employees.
6. Provide incentives for safety performance.
7. Require employees to read the safety manual and students to read lab safety rules.
Have them sign a statement confirming they understand and agree to follow
procedures.
8. Conduct periodic, unannounced lab inspections and involve students/employees in
simulated inspections.
9. Integrate safety training into science education and daily work.
10. Hold regular safety meetings to discuss inspection results and safety concerns.
11. When conducting hazardous experiments, ask:

 What are the hazards?


 What are the worst possible things that could go wrong?
 How will I deal with them?
 What protective equipment and facilities are necessary?

12. Require all accidents to be reported and reviewed by the safety committee.
13. Include health and safety discussions in every pre-lab/pre-experiment session.
14. Do not leave experiments unattended unless they are failsafe.
15. Prohibit working alone in the lab or without a staff member's knowledge.
16. Extend safety practices beyond the lab to vehicles and homes.
17. Allow only minimum amounts of flammable liquids in each lab.
18. Prohibit smoking, eating, and drinking in the laboratory.
19. Do not store food in chemical refrigerators.
20. Develop and conduct emergency drills for fire, explosions, poisoning, spills, electric
shock, bleeding, and contamination.
21. Maintain good housekeeping practices in all work areas.
22. Display emergency contact numbers (fire, police, ambulance) near every phone.
23. Store acids and bases separately, as well as fuels and oxidizers.
24. Maintain a chemical inventory to prevent unnecessary purchases.
25. Use warning signs to mark hazardous areas.
26. Develop specific safety procedures for experiments involving hazardous materials,
ensuring that most dangerous experiments are conducted in fume hoods.
Steps Requiring Moderate Expense

27. Allocate a portion of the departmental budget to safety.


28. Require eye protection at all times in labs and chemical transport areas.
29. Provide personal protective equipment (PPE) such as safety glasses, gloves, face
shields, lab coats, and shields.
30. Install and maintain fire extinguishers, safety showers, eyewash stations, first aid kits,
fire blankets, and fume hoods, testing them monthly.
31. Install guards on vacuum pumps and secure compressed gas cylinders.
32. Supply first-aid equipment and provide training on its proper use.
33. Use fireproof cabinets for flammable chemical storage.
34. Maintain a centrally located safety library for reference.
35. Remove electrical connections from chemical refrigerators and require magnetic
closures.
36. Require grounded plugs on all electrical equipment and install ground fault
interrupters (GFIs) where necessary.
37. Label all chemicals with:

 Name of the substance


 Nature and degree of hazard
 Safety precautions
 Name of the responsible person

38. Implement a system for dating stored chemicals and discarding/recertifying them after
set periods.
39. Develop a legal, safe, and ecologically responsible disposal system for chemical
wastes.
40. Ensure secure, well-spaced, and ventilated chemical storage.

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