Laboratory Safety CHM037.

2 Organic Chemistry Laboratory Manual

LABORATORY SAFETY (In the actual laboratory)

Very rarely will an injury or accident occur in a well-supervised laboratory. When an

injury or an accident does occur, it is generally brought about by complacency. In this laboratory,
you will hear a lot about lab safety; you will be given instructions at the start of each laboratory,
you will be told of the major hazards of each chemical you will be using, and you will be quizzed
on safety. It is very important to give emphasis on safety to reduce the odds of injuries in the lab
by being sure that students know what hazards exist, how to avoid them and how to respond if
something does go wrong. Knowledge is the best defense against injury in a chemistry
laboratory.

The best way to prevent accidents is for each student to know the possible hazards of
the laboratory. Any experiment, no matter how often it has been performed in the past, has the
potential to fail with hazardous results. By knowing the hazards, you will develop a healthy
respect for what is happening around you. Potential accidents can be spotted before they can
occur. If there is ever anything that does not seem right to you, it is not only your right, but also
your obligation to point them out to your instructor.

Most laboratory safety is common sense. Remember that this is a general guideline and
therefore may be incomplete. If you are ever unsure about safety, please ask.

SAFETY: GENERAL DISCUSSION

We highlight here, in the form of a Safety Alert, some general aspects regarding safe
practices in the laboratory.

Personal Attire

1. Do not wear shorts or sandals in the laboratory; the laboratory is not a beach! Proper clothing
gives protection against chemicals that may be spilled accidentally. Never wear clothes that
hang, such as those sleeves. Be sure ties and scarves are tucked well inside your laboratory
gown. These pose fire hazards (if you are reaching or bending down near and open flame) as
well as chemical hazards (if they accidentally dragged through a chemical, they can transport
that chemical directly to your skin). It is advisable to wear a laboratory coat, but in any case,
the more skin that is protected by clothing the better.

2. Always wear safety glasses or goggles in the laboratory. This applies even when you are
writing in your laboratory notebook or washing glassware, since nearby workers may have an

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accident. Contact lenses are not permitted in the lab. Your goggles will protect your eyes
from spill hazards, but cannot protect you from fumes, which can dry your contact lenses out
and may result in the necessity of an operation for their removal. Contact lenses can also
absorb chemicals from the air, concentrate and hold them against the eye, and prevent
flushing of the eye should a chemical be splashed into the eyes. Should you have to wear
corrective glasses while working in the laboratory, make certain that the lenses are
shatterproof. Wearing goggles over such glasses is recommended because the goggles give
additional protection from chemicals entering your eyes from the sides of the lenses.

3. Long hair is to be constrained. Like hanging clothes, long hair is subject to fire and contact
with chemicals.

4. Wear latex gloves when working with particularly hazardous chemicals. Some reagents are
especially hazardous if they come into contact with your skin. The ones you are most likely to
encounter in the organic laboratory are concentrated acids and bases, and bromine and its
solutions. Check with your instructor whenever you are uncertain whether you should be
wearing gloves when handling reagents.

General Considerations

1. Become familiar with the layout of the laboratory room. Locate the exits from the room and
the fire extinguishers, fire blankets, eyewash fountains, safety showers, and first-aid kits in
and near your workspace. Consult with your instructor regarding the operation and purpose
of each of the safety-related devices.

2. Find the nearest exits from your laboratory room to the outside of the building. Should
evacuation of the building be necessary, use stairways rather than elevators to exit. Remain
calm during the evacuation, and walk rather than run to the exit.

3. Become knowledgeable about basic first-aid procedures. The damage from accidents will be
minimized if first aid is applied promptly. Read the section “First Aid in Case of an Accident”
on the inside front cover of this book.
4. Absolutely no food or beverages will be permitted inside the lab. They can absorb chemicals
from the air (and concentrate them), or can pick them up from the bench, causing ingestion
of these chemicals. Everything possible will be done to be sure the laboratory airs is safe for
working in without the use of special respiratory equipment. Please don’t complicate the
issue by eating these chemicals as well!

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 Laboratory Safety CHM037.2 Organic Chemistry Laboratory Manual

5. WASH YOUR HANDS! Wash your hands frequently during lab, and definitely wash your hands
twice at the end of the lab, once in the lab itself, and again outside of lab especially before
eating. Once you get home, you should wash your face as well. You don’t want to drag too
many chemicals around with you on your skin.

6. ABSOLUTELY NO HORSEPLAY WILL BE TOLERATED IN THE LABORATORY! Offenders of this

one will be unceremoniously case out with a zero resulting for that day’s work.

7. Always read the upcoming experiments carefully and thoroughly, being sure understand all of
the directions before entering the lab. This will help you to be prepared to handle any
hazards of the experiment, and will also help you to perform the experiment more quickly
resulting in less “fumbling around” and reckless work as you rush to finish on time. To ensure
that you read the upcoming experiment, you are required to complete the pre-lab
assignments before entering the lab.

8. Be in the lab and ready promptly when the lab begins. The safety lecture (specific to the
experiment) will be the first item of business each day. If you are not present to get this
important information, you will not be allowed to do the experiment.

9. Never work alone in the laboratory. In the event of an accident, you may need the
immediate help of a coworker. Should you have to work in the laboratory outside of the
regularly scheduled periods, do so only with the express permission of your instructor and in
the presence of at least one other person.

Safety Equipment

1. Take the time to identify all of the laboratory safety equipment, and keep their location in
your mind at all times. You should be able to close your eyes any time during a lab and point
to such safety equipment as the fire extinguisher, the emergency eyewash stations, the fire
blankets, the safety shower, etc. If you were to splash a chemical in your eyes, you’d better
be able to find that eyewash station without your eyes well before permanent damage can
occur (which can be seconds depending on the nature of the chemical).

2. Check all safety equipment. Examples of important safety checks are: Is the fire extinguisher
charged? Is there enough sodium bicarbonate in case there is a chemical spill? If anything
does not look right to you, report it to your lab instructor IMMEDIATELY!

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Apparatus and Chemicals

1. Always check carefully for imperfections in the glassware that you will be using. This should
be done not only when checking into the laboratory for the first time but also when setting
up the apparatus needed for each experiment. Look for cracks, chips, or other imperfections
in the glass that weaken it. Use care in storing your glassware so that it is not damaged
when you open or close the locker or drawer. Pay particular attention to the condition of
round-bottom flasks and condensers. The flasks often have “star” cracks (multiple cracks
emanating from a central point) as a result of being banged against a hard surface. Heating
or cooling a flask having this type of flaw may cause the flask to rupture with loss of its
contents. This could result in a serious fire, not just loss of the desired product. To detect
such cracks, hold the flask up to the light and look at all its surfaces closely. With respect to
condensers, their most vulnerable points are the ring seals—the points where the inner tube
and the water jacket of the condenser are joined. Special care must be given to examining
these seals for defects, because if cracks are present water might leak into your apparatus
and contaminate your product or, worse, cause violent reactions. If you detect imperfections
in your glassware, consult with your teacher immediately regarding replacement. Cracked or
seriously chipped apparatus should always be replaced, but glassware with slight chips may
still be safe to use.

2. Broken glass. Never pick up broken glassware with your bare hands, regardless of the size of
the pieces. Typically, puncture wounds occur with the largest pieces in such a situation,
because they look to be the most harmless. A brush and dust pan is provided for broken
glassware. Place all broken glassware in the appropriate broken glassware container, and
never put caps, paper or other waste in this same container. Very small bits of broken
glassware can be picked up with a damp paper towel. Never put broken glass in a regular
garbage can. A container is provided that is especially designed for broken glassware.

3. Dispose of glassware properly. The laboratory should be equipped with a

properly labeled special container for broken glassware and
disposable glass items such as Pasteur pipets and melting-
point capillaries. It is not appropriate to throw such items in
the regular trash containers, because maintenance personnel may injure themselves while
removing the trash. Broken thermometers are a special problem because they usually contain
mercury, which is toxic and relatively volatile. There should be a separate, closed container
for disposal of thermometers. If mercury has spilled as a result of the breakage, it should be

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cleaned up immediately. Consult with your instructor about appropriate procedures for doing
so.

4. Know the properties of the chemicals used in the

experiments. Understanding these properties helps you
to take the proper precautions when handling them and
to minimize danger in case of an accident. Handle all
chemicals with care. Refer to Material Data Sheets
(MSDS) to learn about toxicity and other potential
hazards associated with the chemicals you use. Most
chemicals are at least slightly toxic, and many are very toxic and irritating if inhaled or
allowed to come in contact with the skin. It is a good laboratory practice to wear plastic or
latex gloves when handling chemicals, and there may be times when it is imperative to do so.
Should chemicals come in contact with your skin, they can usually be removed by a thorough
and immediate washing of the affected area with soap and water. Do not use organic
solvents like ethanol or acetone to rinse chemicals from your skin, as these solvents may
actually assist the absorption of the substances into your skin.

5. Always read the label to reagents (chemicals used in an experiment) twice! Many chemicals
look identical on first glance, and may differ only slightly in their spelling or concentration.
Sodium sulfate may look similar to sodium sulfite, but they are most certainly different and
confusing them in the lab may result in dire consequences. Therefore, read the label as you
grab the bottle, and holding it in your hand, look carefully at the label a second time and
verify that it is exactly what you want. Never make unauthorized substitution. If you are
wondering what would happen if you used this instead of that, ask your instructor.

6. Avoid the use of flames as much as possible . Most organic substances are flammable, and
some are highly volatile as well, which increases their potential for being ignited accidentally.
Examples of these are diethyl ether, commonly used as a solvent in the organic laboratory,
and acetone. Occasionally, open flames may be used for flame-drying an apparatus or
distilling a high-boiling liquid. In such cases, a Safety Alert section will give special
precautions for their use. Some general guidelines follow.

a. Never use an open flame without the permission of your instructor.

b. Never use a flame to heat a flammable liquid in an open container. Use a water or steam
bath, hot plate, aluminum block, or similar electrical heat device instead. If a flammable
liquid must be heated with an open flame, equip the container holding the liquid with a

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tightly fitting reflux condenser. Please refer to MSDS for the information about the
flammability of many commonly used organic solvents.

c. Do not pour flammable liquids when there are open flames within several feet. The act of
transferring the liquid from one container to another will release vapors into the
laboratory, and these could be ignited by a flame some distance away.

d. Do not pour flammable water-insoluble organic solvents into drains or sinks. First of all,
this is an environmentally unsound way to dispose of waste solvents, and second, the
solvents may be carried to locations where there are open flames that could ignite them.
Water-soluble solvents can be flushed down the drain if local regulations permit; consult
with your instructor about this.

7. Avoid inhaling vapors of organic and inorganic compounds. Although most of the pleasant and
unpleasant odors you encounter in everyday life are organic in nature, it is prudent not to
expose yourself to such vapors in the laboratory. Work at a fume hood when handling
particularly noxious chemicals, such as bromine or acetic anhydride, and, if possible, when
performing reactions that produce toxic gases.

8. Never taste anything in the laboratory unless specifically instructed to do so . You should also
never eat or drink in the laboratory, as your food may become contaminated by the
chemicals that are being used.

9. Minimize the amounts of chemicals you use and dispose of chemicals properly . Consult with
your instructor if there are any questions about the procedures.

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References:
Pavia, Donald. Introduction to Organic Laboratory Techniques. 5th International Edition. Cengage
Learning, Incorporated. 2012.

Kenneth Williamson and Katherine Masters. Macroscale and Microscale Organic Experiments.
Cengage Learning, Incorporated. 2011.

John C. Gilbert and Stephen F. Martin. Experimental Organic Chemistry: A Miniscale and
Microscale Approach. 5th ed. Brookes/Cole Cengage Learning. 2011.

Lisa Nichols. Organic Chemistry Laboratory Techniques. LibreTexts.

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