Safety in the Laboratory
Life is full of danger and dangerous situations. Even the safest situation can turn dangerous by accident or carelessness. You must be careful in whatever you do. Knowing what is a safe and recognizing danger signals will keep you safe in the laboratory and elsewhere. Safety must be made a part of life. Hopefully, this lab will help you in the laboratory and life in general.
General Procedures and Information
The term "chemical" causes fear in many people. If a food is treated with a "chemical", people thing they will be poisoned if they eat the food. Chemicals are a part of your daily life. Everything you touch is a chemical. Chemicals are to be respected, not feared. We must ask ourselves, "What makes a chemical hazardous?"
A chemical is considered hazardous if it is believed to cause cancer, toxic, an irritant, flammable, reactive, corrosive, which causes a threat to life or the environment. A chemical is also considered hazardous if it is on the list in the Occupational Safety and Health Act or assigned a threshold limit value (TLV) by the American Conference of government Industrial Hygienists.
Can you be harmed if you are just in the room with the material or have a limited exposure? Not necessarily. Chemicals can enter the body by inhalation, ingestion, eye contact, and absorption through the skin. To protect yourself, you must take precautions by using personal protective equipment (PPE).
Personal Protective Equipment
Goggles: In the lab, you must wear the proper eye protection, at all times. Proper chemical splash goggles are required. Regular eyeglasses and safety glasses do not provide the splash protection on the sides, above, or below. Shop goggles are also not sufficient to use in the chemical laboratory. These goggles usually look like splash goggles, but have holes on the sides. The will allow liquids to reach the eyes. The proper goggles must fit snuggly, but not too tight to...