Personal protective equipment (PPE) like safety goggles and lab coats should not be trusted to protect you from harm. This is because they depend on the wearer to maintain and wear them properly in order for them to function effectively. No person can be relied upon to always, 100% of the time wear his or her PPE properly—or even at all!

Additionally, PPE itself is not 100% effective. A large fraction of eye injuries happen to people who were not wearing the proper eye protection (or were wearing it incorrectly). If you think about this, it also means that some eye injuries occur even when the victim is wearing appropriate eye protection! Imagine a chemical splash that dislodges the goggles from your face as an example.

Do not depend on PPE as your only defense against an incident unless you cannot avoid it. If you have a close call in which your PPE is tested—perhaps a flying part intercepted by your safety glasses—you should re-examine the various hazard controls protecting you, because you came very close to an injury. PPE is your last safety barrier; if it fails, you will have an incident.

If you have questions about PPE and your different layers of hazard control, contact Dr. Daniel Kuespert, Homewood Laboratory Safety Advocate, at [email protected]. See Dr. Kuespert’s website, https://labsafety.jhu.edu, for more safety information. As always, emergency response is available from Security at 410-516-7777.

Now that COVID-19 is a part of our daily life in the lab, we’ve become accustomed to disinfecting after each work shift. Keeping a tidy lab, free of clutter and unnecessary equipment, makes the lab easier to disinfect—there is less that needs to be moved out of the way, less that needs to be wiped. Your disinfecting routine will also be more effective, since you are less likely to miss spots.

Tidy labs are also safer, because there are no bottles of chemicals waiting to be knocked off the bench, sharp tools hiding under piles of paper, or round objects such as screw or rods waiting to cause slips and falls.

Lastly, a clean lab is more efficient. Although it takes time to put things away when they are not needed, this is generally more than offset by not having to search for items, not having to clear away space on the bench or in the hood to work, etc. Be safer, be more efficient, and avoid COVID-19 simply by keeping a tidy lab.

If you have questions about lab safety and efficiency improvements, contact Dr. Daniel Kuespert, Homewood Laboratory Safety Advocate, at [email protected]. See Dr. Kuespert’s website, https://labsafety.jhu.edu, for more safety information. As always, emergency response is available from Security at 410-516-7777.

With the advent of COVID-19 and the personnel density requirements imposed by the university, more researchers are working alone in the lab. For some work, this is perfectly fine, but for work with a higher level of risk, someone should know you are working in the lab and monitor you in case of trouble.

Depending on the risk level, this may be as simple as sending messages over Microsoft Teams to your labmates when you enter and leave the lab. Other times, it may be necessary for someone to monitor you from the door of the lab as you conduct riskier work. Consult with your principal investigator to determine the risk level of your work and any need for monitoring. As a last resort, Security (410-516-7777) can occasionally check on you if you inform them of the need; don’t forget to tell them when you leave!

Never conduct risky lab work alone; tragic incidents can result. In 2011, at Yale University, physics undergraduate Michele Dufault, a few weeks away from graduation, was working alone in a campus machine shop late at night, when her hair became caught in a lathe (a rotating machine tool). Her body was discovered in the morning, triggering a great deal of soul-searching at Yale (and here) about appropriate precautions for lone work.

If you have questions about working alone in the lab, shops, or makerspaces, contact Dr. Daniel Kuespert, Homewood Laboratory Safety Advocate, at [email protected]. See Dr. Kuespert’s website, https://labsafety.jhu.edu, for more safety information. As always, emergency response is available from Security at 410-516-7777.

Since we’ve been away from the labs for some time, some chemical products—laboratory reagents, solvents, paints, adhesives, etc.—have had time to age. Sometimes this is harmless (e.g., a sealed bottle of alcohol); other times it can degrade the utility of the product (e.g., dried out paint); and in some cases it can be downright dangerous (e.g., picric acid, a chemical used in metallurgy, becomes a shock-sensitive explosive if it dries out).

Regardless of the effect on the chemicals, this is an excellent time to clean out chemicals that are expired or unwanted. Take the time to look through your chemical cabinets to identify what you don’t need. In addition to expired or degraded chemicals, consider disposing anything you haven’t used in 3 years unless you’ve got a grant or a grant application for which you’ll use that chemical.

The Department of Health, Safety, and Environment will pick up excess chemicals in buildings that are not connected to Macaulay Hall (where their excess chemical storage room is located). Use the form at https://orchid.hosts.jhmi.edu/hse/webtools/wasteform/ to request a pickup; note someone must be present in the lab for the chemicals to be picked up. If you are in a building connected to Macaulay through the steam tunnels, transport your excess chemicals to the Macaulay Hall storage room Thursday 9am-12pm. Totes are available from the storage room for safe transport of chemicals.

If you have questions about how to adapt your work and current safety procedures to work well with the COVID-19 precautions, contact Dr. Daniel Kuespert, Homewood Laboratory Safety Advocate, at [email protected]. See Dr. Kuespert’s website, https://labsafety.jhu.edu, for more safety information. As always, emergency response is available from Security at 410-516-7777.