Macrolab Safety Notes

Your guide to safe lab techniques

Believe it or not, there is only one person who can make you safe in the lab, and you're looking at him or her (that is, if your monitor is shiny enough). But to be safe, you have to decide that you want to be safe: you must be proactive.

This means thinking ahead about what to do to be safe, getting an attitude (of safety, that is), and working on building good safety habits. Safety is:

• common sense behavior, thought out before an accident so you know what to look for (to prevent it) and how to respond (if one does happen)
• a self-aware attitude of observing and thinking safe at all times
• making good habits so safe things come naturally

Safety can be summed up in six words:

Think safe, act safe, be safe!

Common sense

Common sense is easy: just ask yourself what your mom would want you to do so you don't hurt yourself. Problem is, you have to be able to see the results and consequences of each action before you do it. That's not easy; in fact, it's hard work because you have to pay attention and ask yourself questions all the time, before and while you're in the lab.

Attitude

This isn't really hard, either, but hard to keep up all the time. Just ask yourself, "Does this guy have this attitude all the time, or does he ever relax?" a good attitude doesn't relax: that's when an accident happens! Always ask yourself in the lab: "Is this safe? How can this go wrong? Could this hurt someone else? What should I be looking for?"

Habits

Bad habits are easy to make; it's the good ones you have to work hard at to get and keep. So how do you? Work hard at it! Think to yourself: "This is a good habit to make." And then, keep doing it over and over till it becomes a habit you don't have to think about.

Rules

Rules are our little way of telling you, "WAKE UP AND PAY ATTENTION!" We try not to make up stupid rules (but rarely succeed). Most of the rules make sense if you think about them; if not, ask us, and if they still don't make sense, quit and find another profession (or convince us we're wrong so we change the rule). Either way, follow the rules or pay the price (which may hurt your grade or cause injury, but not both: if you cut off your finger, we figure that's punishment enough).

So the rules are as simple as we can make them:

• Safety (catch that word?) glasses/goggles MUST be worn at all times.
• No open-toe shoes or sandals.
• No long hair flying every which way (into motors, flames, chemicals...).
• No food or drink at the bench: you might grab and drink the wrong stuff!
• KNOW what your weighing, mixing, pouring into what....
• Watch yourself and the other guy: ask questions of both of you.
• Know where the fire extinguisher is, the fire blanket, the eye wash and the exits
• Program yourself for the obvious. Stand in the lab the first few times and repeat after me: "In case of fire, I will go to the fire extinguisher THERE, grab it, pull the pin, aim the hose at the base of the fire, and blast the beejeebers out of it!" But maybe you should first ask what kind of fire and what's the best way to put it out.  Sometimes, just putting a beaker or watch glass over a flask with fire coming out shuts it down. Don't do the dramatic if the simple will work (remember "common sense"??).

Safety Quiz

"Quiz over what?" you ask yourself. Well, that is the point, isn't it? Take the quiz and see how many you get right: you have to answer all questions correctly to do the first lab.

Now read the first lab (and every one after that), then:

• Think of three things that could go wrong with the skills involved.
• Think of three things that could involve safety problems: write these all down, bring them to class to discuss, and put them in your lab report in the right place.

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