LABORATORY 1: LABORATORY SAFETY

NAME: Tiad, Frenzy Gayle D.

SECTION: 28EF

1) List and describe the appropriate safety procedures practiced in the laboratory that pertain
to general laboratory safety and awareness:

a. Personal safety
 Eating, drinking, smoking, using lip balms, contact lenses and cosmetics are
prohibited in areas where specimens are handled to avoid contamination due to the
residues that you’ve left on the laboratory that may have a huge impact on future projects
that could lead into unpleasant situations.
 Drinks and foods must not be stored in refrigerators, freezers, cabinets and
shelves where blood and potentially contaminated substance are present to avoid
ingesting the chemical residue present in the substance that can harm the body, if possible
separate food from chemicals to avoid further problems.
 Long hair, ties, scarves and earrings should be secured because it may cause
further damage like burning your own hair, ties and scarves, it is best to remove these things
before entering the laboratory for safety purposes.
 Keep your pens and pencil out of your mouth because you might have touched
chemicals and at the same time you are holding your pen, hazardous substances might get
into your pen and you might ingest these chemicals if you put it into your mouth.
 Appropriate personal protective equipment such as lab coats, lab footwear,
gloves and protective eyewear must be used inside the laboratory. Using lab coats must
be used to protect your clothes from contamination and lab coats must not be used outside
the Laboratory, lab footwear specifically close shoes must be used to protect the feet from
possible puncture of sharp objects, broken materials and contamination from infectious
materials, gloves should be worn before handling liquid and dangerous specimens, cuts and
abrasion must be bandage before wearing gloves to prevent infection, lastly, protective
eyewear must be worn upon having contact with dangerous substances such as aerosols and
chemicals.
 Never mouth pipette, mechanical pipetting devices must be used for pipetting
all liquids. Mouth pipetting is the most known and common method of becoming poisoned
 by poisonous substances or being infected by hazardous chemical and it may lead into
serious problems or worst death.
 Properly wash your hands with soap, running water and apply 10-15 seconds of
friction or rubbing action, hands should be dried and a paper towel must be used to turn
off the faucet. Washing our hands is very necessary after using the laboratory to eliminate
possible contaminants, chemicals and other harmful substances that might stick into our
hands. Hands are must washed after you finished everything that you are doing and before
leaving the laboratory, after you remove the gloves that you used, before eating, drinking,
applying cosmetics, lip balms, contact lenses or using the lavatory facilities, before having
activities with the involvement of hand contact with other people, immediately wash your
hands after accidental contact with blood or substances with infectious materials.
 Laboratory work surfaces must be disinfected and after a spill of blood or body
fluid with a 1:10 dilution of Clorox in water, to avoid further damages and widespread of
hazardous chemicals that are not safe for people.

b. Eye safety
 Know where the nearest eye wash station is located and how to operate it.
Being knowledgeable of using the eye wash station is essential because certain situations
like accidental chemical exposure might occur and delaying the treatment may cause serious
injury, it also allows the person who is exposed to flush away the hazardous substance.
 Eye goggles should be worn to prevent eye injuries that may occur and to protect
it from hazardous substances that your eyes might get exposed to. You should goggles when
you are exposed to solvents, concentrated acids and bases, when performing procedures
such as aerosols of blood or other body fluid, when you are working with reagents under
pressure and lastly when you are working with close proximity to ultra-violet radiation.
 Wearing contact lenses in the laboratory is discouraged and requires extra
precautions if worn. Wearing lenses might damage your eyes because gases and vapors can
be concentrated under lenses and if you are exposed to chemical that can harm your eyes it
is nearly possible to take off your contact lenses and wear glasses if possible.

c. Handling of biologically hazardous material

 You should handle all patient samples as biohazardous material. you should
follow precautions and safety measures when handling samples, always think that your
samples are very fragile and needs to be taken care of and you should be extra careful in
handling your samples.
 Be Cautious and plan ahead. You should always pay attention on the things that
your working with, think of the possible things that could go wrong so that you can be ready
if ever unpleasant things occur.
 Always use personal protective equipment. Always use gloves, lab shoes and
other things for protection, check beforehand if the equipment is damaged so that you can
replace it immediately and it can provide adequate protection.
 Read labels and the material safety data sheet for you to be aware of the content
of that material, you need to make sure you understand the material if it is hazardous or not
to prevent further damage .
 Make sure all containers are properly labeled to prevent mistakes and errors to
occur, report to your supervisor immediately if this case happens.
 Hands should be washed immediately, after using the laboratory it is necessary
to wash your hands to washout possible contaminants and biohazardous materials in our
hands, you should also wash your hands after you remove your gloves and taking calls and
using keyboards and others.
 All biohazardous materials should be discarded in a biohazardous bag to be
autoclave. Before leaving the place all biohazardous materials should be disposed because
it is harmful to humans, animals, plants or the environment.
 All counter and table tops should be disinfected. It is important to disinfect the
table tops because as we all know biohazardous materials are harmful so we need to
disinfect it immediately to prevent sickness and other bad things to occur, it is necessary to
disinfect it at the beginning of the day, if you spill your samples and at the end of the day
before you go home.
 Learn about emergency procedures and equipment. It is important to know the
emergency procedures such as evacuation procedures, emergency reporting procedures,
procedures on how to deal with fire and spills and emergency exits so that you can
immediately evacuate in case of emergency.

d. Handling of needles and sharps

 Eliminate the use of devices that are sharp enough to puncture your skin if
possible. In using sharp devices you must identify the sharpness of the device that you are
using, determine if there is an alternative way available to continue your procedures without
getting punctured, if you cannot eliminate to use sharp objects consider using materials with
shatter-proof features.
 Get trained to know the proper techniques before using sharp devices in
conjunction to biohazardous materials. As we all know biohazardous material are
dangerous so improper handling of sharps may increase your risk in acquiring injuries.
 Use scalpel/ blades in appropriate manner for us to be safe and away from
danger upon handling these sharps you must consider using blades with safety engineering
features and it it prohibited to use the sharp without handles because it controls and put
barrier between the hand and the sharp.
 Do not leave sharp devices out in the environment any longer than necessary
regardless of what you’ve used them for, if possible dispose sharps immediately after use
and do not pit sharp devices on your pockets to avoid punctures and injuries
 Do not put excessive force on sharp devices because if you put too much force
there is a huge possibility that it will bend and break and it will increase the risk of puncture.
 Use appropriate container for the disposal of sharp waste, the proper container
must be leak-proof on sides and bottom, it must have a label that indicate the purpose of
the container and always close the lid for proper disposal.
 If you injured yourself using sharps, take immediate actions to prevent further
infections, first clean your wound with running water and soap and cover it, report the injury
to your supervisor the moment you acquire the injury and report to the occupational health
to know if medical attention is required upon having the injury.

2) Discuss appropriate safety procedures practiced in the laboratory when handling all
chemicals, flammables, ether and compressed gases.

Awareness is an important factor when in laboratory and handling hazardous chemicals

because exposure to chemicals might lead into serious problems. These are some safety
procedures and measured practiced in the laboratory when handling chemicals, flammables,
ether and compressed gases. In handling chemicals such as toxic and corrosive materials and
carcinogens avoid dangerous splatter, always add acid to water and not the other way around
because it might cause explosion, toxic materials should be labeled and separately stored from
other chemicals, it should be kept in the hood during preparation, special protective carriers must
carry and transport acids and alkali, in case hazardous chemicals is spilled wash all exposed
human tissue including the eyes with running water, report to your supervisor about the spillage
and seek for medical attention if necessary, all identified chemicals as carcinogen must be labeled
properly and protective suits must be worn such as lab coats, lab shoes, gloves and many more.
In handling flammable materials all flammable reagents must be kept in a storage such as
closet or refrigerator all the time if it is not in use, any solutions that of the same kind must be
labeled as flammable for it to be easily identified, any experiments that requires the usage of
flammable materials should be performed in an area that is free from ignition source, flammable
substance should not be heated through an open flame and if flammable materials are present
in a laboratory the laboratory must have a ventilation, exhaust hood to prevent the accumulation
of flammable vapors and lastly flammable compounds must be properly disposed.

Ether compounds or flammable compounds must be placed or stored in an explosive-

proof refrigerators because it easily explode because its boiling point is approximately the room
temperature , it must be taken extra care of because it is really dangerous, ether compound tends
to react with oxygen and it forms explosive peroxides so it must be disposed properly through
the Hazardous Material Office. When handling compressed gasses it must be stored in containers
designed, constructed,tested and maintained in the conformity of U.S. Department of
Transportation Specifications and Regulations, the containers containing compressed gasses
must be secured properly in a cylinder stand so that it cannot fall and if it falls immediately notify
your supervisors.