Laboratory Safety

Introduction

Laboratory environments present considerably more risk than general circulation (e.g. corridor) areas or offices. Scientists can become complacent about the level risk present because they are familiar with working in laboratories and because it may have been a long time (or never) since they experienced a negative outcome (i.e. accident/incident). However, there are many hazards commonly found in laboratories that create significant risk of harm. Just a few of them are:

  • Chemicals of varying types and reactivities
  • Biological agents of varying pathogenicity
  • Radiological agents of varying intensity and type
  • Compressed gases posing a risk of physical injury and potentially asphyxiation
  • Sharp object of many types
  • Powerful sources of visible and invisible light (e.g. U.V. light, lasers)
  • Cryogenic gases posing a risk of physical injury and potentially asphyxiation
  • High voltage electricity
  • Centrifuges that contain rotors spinning at up to hundreds of thousands of times a minute

All of these hazards must be controlled in order that the risk of adverse effects (injury, ill health, damage to the building and contents) is minimised as much as possible.

Controlling The Risk

The above hazards present very little risk when no direct interaction with them occurs. However, in order for scientists to do their work, they must interact with (use) these hazards and that is when the risk increases. There is a basic hierarchy that underpins the risk reduction principle and this can be summarised as:

  1. Don't undertake the activity
  2. Substitute a harmful activity/agent with a non-hazardous or less hazardous activity/agent
  3. Physically contain the hazard (e.g. use a fume cupboard or microbiological safety cabinet)
  4. Reduce the amount of agent being used
  5. Implement safe systems of work (sometimes also known as safe operating procedures)
  6. Ensure all persons undertaking the activity have the necessary training, skills and knowledge to do it safely
  7. Use personal protective equipment to remove residual risk

As can be seen, there is a lot that can be done. Sometimes complicated solutions are needed that may involve engineering physical containment or using robotic systems for remote handling. However, often simple precautions are all that are needed and that is where Good Laboratory Practice comes in.

Good Laboratory Practice

(updated 4/2/2020)

In the above list of control measures, Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) is a basic safe system of work. For the vast majority of work undertaken in Life Sciences laboratories, GLP will be all that is needed to reduce risk to a low level. It is important to stress "good" though, since standards can often drop and laboratory practice can become anything but good. Key elements of GLP are:

  • No eating, drinking,smoking or applying of cosmetics in the laboratory
  • Tie back long hair
  • Wear sensible (enclosed) shoes
  • Wear eye protection
  • Wear a clean laboratory coat (fastened!) with sleeves that protect your arms
  • No running in the laboratory
  • No mouth pipetting or any other activity likely to result in ingestion of hazards
  • Wash your hands before leaving the laboratory
  • Wearing suitable (the material will depend on the nature of the hazard) gloves when needed
  • Handle anything presenting a hazard by the airborne route in an appropriate fume cupboard or safety cabinet

For the full School of Life Sciences Good Laboratory Practice document, log onto the safety database and access Safe Operating Procedure (SOP) number 78.

What about risk assessment?

The key legal aspect to controlling hazards in the work place is risk assessment. GLP is a set of control measures following on from an assessment of the risk posed by common laboratory hazards. However, it does not remove the need to perform separate risk assessments for uncommon hazards and those of a more serious nature where basic GLP does not control the risk enough. Ultimately it is up to the person conducting the work to ensure that they are implementing sufficient controls to reduce the risk. If in doubt, advice can also be sought from the School health and safety advisers.

Common Hazard Warning Symbols

Many hazards are labelled with warning signs to help you understand what the hazard is (and therefore how to reduce the subsequent risk). Click here to view the common laboratory hazard warning symbols.