DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY

LABORATORY SAFETY

I Your Responsibility for Accident Prevention

Accident prevention is a collective responsibility that requires the full cooperation of everyone in
the laboratory. Your safety is both your and your laboratory instructor's first concern. Everyone is
responsible for accident prevention, especially you, the person actually carrying out the laboratory
procedures. Accidents often result from
• an indifferent attitude,
• failure to use common sense, and
• failure to follow instructions and making mistakes.
• not being prepared properly.

You can be a victim of your own mistake or worse; of a mistake made by other student. Be grateful
if someone points out that you are doing something wrong , as it could save you from serious
injury. Conversely, if someone else makes a mistake, let him or her know. A safe laboratory is also
your instructor's responsibility; report any inappropriate behaviour to the superior. Become
involved; participate in the practice of preventing accidents. Follow these
general guidelines:
• Follow all safety instructions carefully.
• Never play tricks in a chemical laboratory.
• Become thoroughly acquainted with the location and use of safety equipment and
facilities such as exits, safety showers, and eyewash fountains.
• Before undertaking any laboratory work, become familiar with the hazards of the
chemicals involved. Be sure that you follow the safety precautions that protect you and others
from those hazards.
• Become familiar with the hazards of the apparatus and their operating procedures.

Doing things safely is not merely the right way to work

-it is the only way.

1. Personal Protection
Eye Protection
1. Everyone in the laboratory, including visitors, must wear
safety glasses at all times, even when not performing a
chemical operation. Safety glasses have to be purchased.

2. Note that contact lenses pose a safety risk even when safety
glasses are worn. Rather wear your spectacles. Chemical
vapours may enter and accumulate under these lenses end cause serious damage.

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 Clothing
Clothing worn in the laboratory should offer protection from splashes and spills.
Dress code:
1. A long white laboratory coat is essential and compulsory - everyone in the laboratory must
wear it. NO OVERCOAT, NO ENTRY!
The coat must be buttoned up at all times.
Please note that these coats are NOT supplied by the Chemistry
Department – each student is responsible for his/her own coat.
2. Wear proper shoes that cover the foot. Barefoot, sandals, high heels or
open toes are not allowed in the laboratory.
3. Wear long pants. Shorts and miniskirts unnecessarily expose your skin and
are not safe.
4. Constrain long hair and avoid loose clothing.
5. Do not wear jewellery such as rings, bracelets, and wristwatches in the
laboratory. Jewellery can be damaged by chemical fumes and spills.
Chemical seepage in between the jewellery and skin can put corrosives in
intimate contact with your skin.

2. Laboratory Protocol
2.1 Conduct in the Laboratory
As a student, your duty to learn includes the duty to prevent accidents whenever you are in the
chemical laboratory. These guidelines are intended to help you fulfil this additional responsibility:

• Be fully prepared for the practical and know exactly what you should do.
• Know beforehand the hazardous characteristics of the chemicals with which you plan to work.
• Always wash your hands and arms with soap and water before leaving the laboratory.
• Never work alone in the laboratory without a tutor or lecturer present.
• No students are allowed in the laboratory outside scheduled laboratory hours.
• Never consume any food or beverage when you are in a chemical laboratory.
• Never perform unauthorized experiments.
• When moving about in the laboratory, anticipate sudden backing up or changes in
direction by others. If you should stumble or fall while carrying glassware or chemicals, try to
project them away from yourself and others.
• Keep chemicals and apparatus well away from the edges of your laboratory bench or other
workspace.
• The chemistry laboratory is a place for serious learning and working. No fooling around will be
tolerated.

2.2 Housekeeping
Keeping things clean and neat generally leads to a safer environment.

• Keep workspaces and storage areas clear of broken glassware,

leftover chemicals, and scraps of paper.
• Keep aisles free of obstructions. Book bags must be stored under
your work bench.
• Avoid slipping hazards by keeping the floor clear of spilled liquids,
ice, stoppers, glass beads or rods, and other such small items.
• When you leave the laboratory at the end of the practical session,
your work place should be clean and dry. All the equipment and
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 glassware should be replaced in the correct cupboards/drawers, which are clearly labelled.

2.3 Disposal Guidelines

Proper handling of reaction by-products, surplus, waste chemicals and contaminated materials
is a major element of accident prevention.
• When disposing of chemicals, put each class of waste chemical in its specifically labelled
disposal container.
• Never put chemicals into a sink or down the drain unless your instructor has told you that these
substances are allowed by local regulations to be put into the sanitary sewer system.
• Broken, cracked or chipped glassware belongs in its own marked waste container. Broken
thermometers may contain mercury in the fragments; they belong in their own labelled
container.

II Guide to chemical hazards

The diagrams below show some of the common hazard symbols used in chemistry and their
meanings.

Health Hazards
Symbol Meaning Examples
Corrosive Acids: e.g. sulfuric acid in car
Corrosive substances have the potential to batteries.
destroy living tissue upon contact causing severe
burns. The extent of the damage will be Bases: e.g. sodium hydroxide in
dependent upon a number of factors including drain clearing products.
concentration, exposure time and point of
contact. Chlorine: in cleaning products.
Anyone using a corrosive substance should wear
gloves and eye protection. Sodium hypochlorite: in bleach.
Poisonous
Whereas most chemicals are fairly dangerous if Carbon monoxide
ingested or inhaled, many of these are Ammonia
dangerous even on contact. Chlorine
In this case you should wear gloves, eye Sodium cyanide
protection and you may wear a mask over your Lead oxide
mouth and nose or handle the chemical in a Chromium oxide
fume cupboard.

Hazardous To Life
Chemical liquid or gas may cause serious and Toxic gasses
prolonged health effects on short or long term
exposure. It will effect for example the Carcinogens ( a substance capable of
respiratory, sensory and nervous systems. These causing cancer) e.g. radioactive
substances are highly dangerous and life materials.
threatening!
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 Irritant or Harmful
This symbol covers a wide range of (sometimes Harmful: Hexamine, butane, ethanol
relatively minor) hazards - with precautions such
as avoid contact with the skin, do not breathe, Irritant: Sodium hypochlorite,
etc. acetone, ethanol
Anyone using a harmful substance should wear
eye protection and they should take care to wash
any spills off their skin immediately.
Physical Hazards

Oxidising chemical
Oxidising substances do not burn themselves but Ozone (gas)
they provide oxygen for flammable substances to Hydrogen peroxide (liquid)
burn. Calcium hypochlorite (solid), used in
Keep away from flammable substances, including swimming pools
clothing.

Flammable or extremely flammable Gases: hydrogen, acetylene,

propane
Keep it away from flames and sparks, and also Liquids: gasoline, toluene, acetone.
from oxidising substances. Combustible liquids: diesel fuel,
kerosene, formaldehyde solutions
Solids: silicon, naphthalene
Reactive flammable materials:
lithium, zinc powder
Contains gas under pressure
Explosion: Puncturing or allowing the cylinder to Compressed propane is used as a
become hot could result in an explosion or cause fuel for barbequing.
the cylinder to rocket or spin out of control Compressed helium is used to
causing serious injury or property damage. inflate balloons.
Suffocation: Compressed gas cylinders contain a Compressed acetylene is used for
huge volume of gas. A leak in a small or poorly welding.
ventilated area could displace oxygen in the air, Compressed carbon dioxide is used
causing suffocation. in some fire extinguishers.
Frostbite: Gas escaping from a cylinder can be
extremely cold. Severe frostbite can lead to
serious, permanent skin damage.

Explosive
Certain peroxides, ammonium
(Fairly seldom seen in the average lab. Bear in nitrate, azides of heavy metals and
mind that noise and movement can also trigger old Tollen’s reagent.
explosion ,not just sparks/flames!).

Environmental hazard
Environmental hazard
Ammonia, sulphuric acid, chlorine,
Laboratory chemicals which pose some turpentine oil, lead, mercury and
environmental hazard if not got rid of correctly. certain pesticides.
These require particular care to be taken on
disposal.

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III Recommended laboratory techniques
1. Handling reactants
• Always add acids to water and not the other way round. If water is added to concentrated acid,
the generated heat can cause the solution to overheat and to spatter out.
• Never remove large containers of chemicals from their positions.
• Immediately return chemicals to their original positions on the reactants shelves after use.
• Avoid contamination of reagents in the following ways:
- Excess of any reagent may never be returned to the original container. It is discarded.
- Always use a dry clean spatula or drop propette to transfer reagents from their containers.
- Immediately replace the lids or stoppers of reagent containers after use.
- Never switch the lids and stoppers of different reagent containers.
• Always use the fume cupboards when you work with strong acids and bases and other reagents
with irritating or toxic vapours.

• When heating the content of a test tube over a flame, never point the test tube towards
yourself or the person next to you or opposite you. The content of the test tube may suddenly
spurt out.
• If you need to smell the odour of a chemical, waft the fumes towards your nose with one hand.
Never put your nose over the container and inhale the fumes.

• Never look directly into a test tube. View the contents from the side.

• Never taste anything in the laboratory.

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 • Entrance to the preparation room and chemical storeroom is prohibited at all times for
students.

2. Gas burners
• Before you ignite a burner, remove all volatile solvents and
combustible objects.
• You may under no circumstances leave your work place
when your gas burner is lit.
• Immediately notify the laboratory personnel when you smell
burner gas in the laboratory. Presence of burner gas in the
air in a closed environment is very dangerous and can lead to
an explosion. This is usually caused by an open gas burner
tap.

3. Electrical appliances
• Always keep all electrical appliances dry and refrain from fiddling with electrical cabling.
• Immediately report broken or faulty electrical equipment for repairs.

4. Chemical balances
• The pans of the electrical balances must always be kept clean. No wet or
dirty objects may be placed on the balances.
• Clean the surface of the balance with a paper towel to remove any spills
immediately after weighing.

IV Safety equipment and emergency procedures.

Any accident, however small or unimportant must immediately be reported to the responsible
lecturer, tutor or laboratory manager.
The help of the Student Health Services, located directly behind the Chemistry building, should
be called upon. Medical personnel are available during normal office hours to assist registered
students with any health related problems.

1. Dealing with a fire

• Small fires in glass beakers and flasks can be extinguished by simply closing the container with a
watch glass or fire gauze.
• In the case of a larger fire all gas burners should be closed, all combustible materials and
solvents should be removed and it should be reported to the laboratory personnel.
• A powder or CO2 fire extinguisher should always be used and not water. The extinguisher
should be used as follows:

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

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 • In the case when a person’s hair or clothes are on fire:
- Stop the person from running because more oxygen will fan the fire.
- Roll the person on the floor to extinguish the flames.
- A more intense fire of a person’s clothes should be extinguished by covering the person in a
fire blanket or he/she should use the shower.

- Avoid the inhalation of smoke and other fumes from the fire.

2. Chemicals on skin, clothing and eyes

• If a small amount of a reagent gets onto your skin, it should immediately be rinsed with a large
amount of water under the cold water tap.
• If the reagent on a person’s skin covers a large area, then the safety shower should be used with a
large amount of water.
• In the case when a person’s clothes are soaked with much of a reagent, the contaminated clothes
must immediately be removed and then the person should be rinsed with the safety shower.
• If chemicals splashed into your eyes, wash with lots of water for 15 min with the eye wash bottle
which will be in the first aid kit in the lab.

3. Chemical spills
• Notify the tutor to help you to clean up the spill.
• If flammable or toxic chemicals were spilled, warn all persons around you. Turn off any
ignition sources such as burners, motors, and other spark-producing equipment.
• If an acid was spilled, dilute it and neutralise it with a carbonate before cleaning it up. For a
base, use acetic acid.

4. Cut wounds
• Small cut wounds, caused by broken glass, should be washed thoroughly and all pieces of broken
glass removed. Stop the bleeding by applying moderate pressure.
• In case of a more serious cut wound, place a few layers of absorbent paper on the wound.
• Avoid contact with another person’s blood. Use the gloves in the first aid kit.

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5. Emergency evacuation
• In the case of a serious emergency situation it might be necessary that an evacuation must take
place. This can be applicable to the whole chemistry building or only to a specific laboratory
• Such an emergency situation usually involves the following:
- A large fire.
- A large explosion.
- A large gas leak.
- A large chemical leakage.
- A bomb warning.

• When you hear the emergency alarm (a loud ringing bell) you should do the following:
- Remain calm and avoid general panic and hysteria.
- Do not yell or shout.
- Do not run, push or stampede, but move quickly.
- All electrical appliances within your reach should be quickly switched off.
- All gas and water taps within your reach should be quickly closed.
- Move as fast as possible through the doors or emergency exits to the outside of the
building.
- Only take small items with you, like wallets and cell phones. Do not try to carry and rescue
anything larger.
- Help and support injured and fainted persons. Such people should be supported by more
than one other person and brought to safety.
- Assemble on the lawn at the front of the Chemistry building where an attendance register
will be called. Make sure that the emergency personnel know that you are safe and that
they don’t have to look for you.
- Wait at this assembly point for the announcement for when the building is declared safe to
be entered again.

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