In the lab, we often collaborate with others in the lab or with outside researchers. It is essential that lab protocols be communicated consistently and in language everyone understands. Learn about a close call that occurred when a JHU researcher misunderstood an outside collaborator’s protocol in CCall miscommunication MD.
Category: Reference
Safety reference material and links
Fume hoods are not storage cabinets
Chemical fume hoods help prevent exposure to volatile hazardous chemicals in the lab. The hood works best, though, when it is empty. Everything in the hood disturbs the airflow, so keep extra equipment, chemicals, and other materials to a minimum.
Learn more about using fume hoods for storage in Fume hoods are not storage cabinets.
Reporting incidents and close calls–a quick reference sheet
After an incident, it can be difficult to remember how to report it. Post this quick-reference sheet by your telephone to make life easier if an incident occurs. Incident reporting quick reference sheet
Using extension cords, power strips, and surge suppressors
Every office and lab uses electrical equipment, but the wall socket is not always in the right place. An extension cord, power strip, or surge suppressor offers a quick way to fix this situation. Sometimes, though, this is not a good thing.
Learn about fire and other hazards from extension cords and their ilk in Extension cords v2.
How to write a Safety Note about an incident or close call
If you have experienced or witnessed an incident or close call, you can help the wider JHU research community to avoid similar future problems if you draft a JHU Safety Note.
Don’t worry if you’re not a good writer: the Laboratory Safety Advocate will edit your Note for style and certain technical guidelines before it is published.
See instructions on how to write a Safety Note in this document..
What is a “close call?”
A close call is an “almost-accident:” if circumstances were slightly different, someone could have been injured or something could have been damaged.
Learn more about close calls in What is a close call.
How to dispose of empty chemical containers
If you use chemical products or lab chemicals, you probably empty a bottle occasionally. What do you do with it?
Improperly-disposed containers can expose custodians and the public to hazardous chemicals, can create legal liability for you and the university, and can even explode at the disposal facility.
Find out what to do (and what not to do) in What do I do with my empties?
When do you need safety eyewear? Always!
Even if you are not doing anything that “needs” safety eyewear, you still need safety eyewear in the lab!
You do not have control over all hazards in the lab—one of your fellows may walk in with a chemical bottle and suddenly drop it on the bench in front of you, or a pressurized system (like a gas cylinder regulator) may throw off a part. You are exposed to more hazards than you personally are handling—choose eyewear according to your exposure, not your specific work. There have been incidents at Homewood where uninvolved labmates were suddenly involved in someone else’s accident.
Wearing appropriate eyewear in lab or shop is also a mark of a professional scientist or engineer. If you have to be told to put on your safety glasses or goggles when visiting an industrial or governmental facility, you will be considered unprofessional, and you may not get the job for which you are interviewing. Acquire the habit of wearing safety eyewear.
Algorithm for deciding whether you need safety eyewear:
- Is the work you’re about to do hazardous?
If YES, wear appropriate eyewear. Obviously, you personally need it. - Is anyone else in the lab doing hazardous work?
If YES, wear appropriate eyewear. You are exposed to their hazards. - Are chemicals or compressed gases stored or used in the lab at any time?
If YES, wear appropriate eyewear. You do not have control over falling chemical bottles, poorly secured pressurized parts, etc. - Is it possible anyone else will bring hazardous work into the lab while you are there?
If YES, wear appropriate eyewear. Somebody can walk in and drop a chemical bottle at any time, so you need to be ready. - Is it possible that you will “forget” to put on your eyewear if you decide to do hazardous work—or simply not do it because “you’re just doing one little thing?”
If YES, wear appropriate eyewear. - Are you sure you won’t do anything hazardous in lab today, no one will walk in with hazardous materials or equipment, nothing hazardous is stored in the lab, and you want to exhibit bad professional habits?
If YES, you DON’T need to wear safety eyewear.
Lab air can kill you
Equipment, experiments, and people often get dirty—a lab bench covered with cement dust, a drill press clogged with metal shavings, wet glassware that needs drying, or even a researcher covered with sawdust after cutting a wooden part. Some people look to the compressed air tap or cylinder in the lab as a quick way to clean off.
Did you know this can kill?
Even a relatively low-pressure stream of air can propel chips, dust, and parts through the air at high velocity; the flow from a 20psi air line can be supersonic. If this material strikes someone, it can cause serious injury. If the injury is to the eye, the victim may be permanently blinded.
Even worse, a few tens of psi pressure can easily inject air beneath the skin, inflating body parts like balloons—and causing excruciating pain. If air reaches the bloodstream, it can cause air embolisms—blockages in narrow blood vessels—as well as clots & ruptures in vital areas such as the brain. Uncontrolled air injection can be deadly.
Read tips for safely handling compressed air at Compressed air misuse.
JHU chemical waste disposal
Anyone generating chemical waste must take the on-line Chemical Waste Management class on myLearning. Chemical waste may be taken to the Macaulay Hall waste collection room (basement of Macaulay–use the ramp opposite New Chemistry Building) on Thursdays, from 9-12. Use the Chemical Waste Disposal Form to register your waste first.
If your building is not connected by tunnel to Macaulay, use the online form to arrange an in-lab pickup during the Thursday hours that the room in Macaulay is not manned.
All labs that generate chemical waste are required to have trained individuals to maintain the Satellite Accumulation Area. That training is provided by the Chemical Waste Management class.
Chemical waste disposal is free to labs at Homewood unless your chemical is “unknown.” There is a $450 charge for disposal of unknown chemicals–in that instance, technicians must use an expensive test kit to characterize your waste. Yet another reason to always label your chemicals!
Contact HSE at 6-8798 if you have any questions.