• SLS Policy on Wearing of Lab Coats
• Additional Guidance
• Good Reasons for Wearing a Lab Coat

SLS Policy on Wearing of Lab Coats

Amended on 8/09/14 to slightly reword laundering/decontamination section.
Amended on 14/05/14 to include details on reuse of lab coats.
Version 2 approved by the Dean of the School of Research on 4/3/13.
Amended on 19/06/09.
Version 1 approved by the SLS H&S Management Committee on 3/11/06 and by the College Board on 16/11/06.

• The School policy on wearing of lab coats is that lab coats must be worn by all personnel working in a lab environment. This is a core principle of Good Laboratory Practice.
• Lab coats must have long sleeves and should have elasticated cuffs and stud fastenings.
• Lab coats must be worn fastened, not hanging open.
• The School will provide standard lab coats via Central Technical Services/Stores. Any bespoke choice of coat (e.g. different colour or style to those stocked in Stores) will be paid for by the Principal Investigator. Lab coats bought from external suppliers must afford the same, or a better, degree of protection than those supplied by Stores.
• The School policy is to reuse lab coats rather than buy new. Central Technical Services keep a stock of surplus lab coats that have been laundered and are in a fit state for reuse. All personnel are expected to report to CTS when they require a 'new' lab coat and, providing one is available in the appropriate size/style/colour, accept a secondhand coat. If none of the previously used coats are suitable, CTS will obtain a new lab coat from Stores in the required size/style/colour.
• Equally importantly, lab coats must not be worn in non laboratory areas, especially those where food is stored/prepared/consumed. Within SLS the term 'non laboratory areas' includes meeting/seminar rooms, offices, writing rooms*, toilets and the Garland Cafe.
• Our open plan laboratories often require staff who are not actively engaged in lab work to walk through a laboratory area. Staff merely 'passing through'** are not required to wear a lab coat providing they have an appropriate awareness of the potential hazards and risks associated with a busy laboratory or are under the supervision of a member of personnel who has the requisite knowledge.
• The responsibility for complying with this policy lies with all individuals working in laboratories whilst Principal Investigators and other line managers have the responsibility of ensuring compliance.
• Anyone not wearing a lab coat will be asked to put one on and repeat offenders or anyone who refuses to wear one will be asked to meet with the Dean to explain their actions.

Additional Guidance

• *Strictly speaking, SLS writing rooms constitute laboratory areas due to the fact that there are no hand washing sinks located between the lab bays and the writing rooms and, in most cases, they are kept open to the lab, i.e. there is no physical barrier. However, in many areas, they are used purely as offices. In recognition of the need for this flexibility, Group Leaders may designate a writing room as either a laboratory area or an office. If designated as a laboratory area, good laboratory practice applies as it does in the adjoining lab; if designated as an office, lab coats and gloves must be removed and hands washed before entering the writing room.
  
• **It is important to be clear as to what 'passing through' the lab means. People using the lab space as a corridor to travel from one end of the building to the other without pausing in the laboratory area is 'passing through'. Going into the lab in order to undertake laboratory work or to have a discussion with laboratory staff (often where data, sometimes including 'wet' work, will be viewed) is not 'passing through'. Likewise, service staff who will be working in the lab (e.g. CTS staff, workshop staff who are working on equipment, external service engineers, etc) are working in the lab and so should be wearing a lab coat. Stores staff who have to pass through the lab in order to drop off deliveries are deemed to be 'passing through' and so do not need to wear a lab coat. In addition, any dust coat that they wear will not be classed as a lab coat in terms of being banned from offices.
• Personnel working in Tissue Culture Suites are advised to keep a separate lab coat specifically for wearing in TC. This is to reduce the likelihood of contaminants being carried from the general lab into TC and also, where CL2 and CL 3 activities are undertaken, to reduce the likelihood of harmful/potentially harmful micro-organisms being transferred to the general lab. Similarly, personnel working in Radioactivity Suites (Hot Rooms) are advised to keep a separate lab coat for wearing in these areas. This is to reduce the likelihood of radioactive contamination being carried into the general lab.
• Dark blue and dark green lab coats are designated for wearing in CL2 and CL3 suites respectively. Please avoid these colours when choosing a lab coat for wearing in general laboratory areas.
• Lab coats are not required to be worn in computing suites, or similar facilities, where work with hazardous substances is not undertaken.
• Lab coats should be provided to maintenance staff, engineers and other visitors as and when necessary.
• Local arrangements for ensuring there are sufficient and appropriately positioned coat hooks
  and/or lockers should be made by PIs, their staff and Divisional Lab Managers, as appropriate.
• Lab coats for visitors are kept on a hanging rail in the WTB Atrium or at Reception. CTS are responsible for ensuring there is an adequate supply of visitors' lab coats. Soiled lab coats must not be returned to the hanging rail but handed into a Lab Manager for laundering.
• Soiled, disposable lab coats should be disposed of appropriately.
• Soiled, non-disposable lab coats should be decontaminated, if necessary, prior to sending to the CTS facility for laundering. Lab coats from CL2 suites are not routinely autoclaved prior to laundering. They are placed in red "dissolving" bags that are put directly into the washing machines. The "hot wash" used is sufficiently biocidal for most organisms in use. However, any laboratory coat that is known or suspected to be contaminated with a CL2 biological agent must be autoclaved prior to laundering. In addition, if the risk assessment for work with any organism (CL1 or CL2) stipulates that autoclaving is required, this must be undertaken. Note that lab coats from the CL3 lab are always autoclaved prior to laundering. Make sure your name and location are marked on your lab coat using a special laundry marker pen.

Good Reasons for Wearing a Lab Coat

• To comply with legislation, Approved Codes of Practice and other official guidance from Government Agencies. Click here for some examples.
• It is a core principle of Good Laboratory Practice.
• A lab coat acts as a barrier, to some degree at least, to hazardous chemicals, biological agents, hot liquids and also to sharps. Accident reports show that in many cases contamination/injury could have been prevented if the worker was wearing a lab coat.
• It can reduce the likelihood of contamination being spread into non-lab areas. In a busy lab there is always the chance that you will pick contamination up on your clothing. If you wear a lab coat the contamination is left behind when you remove your lab coat. If you do not wear a lab coat, you carry this contamination around into non-lab areas, e.g. the café. It can be argued that you are more likely to pick up contamination on the soles of your shoes than on your clothes. However, it is very unlikely that you will brush against anyone (or contaminate tables in the cafe!) with the soles of your shoes. You should, however, bear this in mind when you go home, especially if you have young children crawling on the floor.
• Some people argue that they should not have to wear a lab coat if their work does not involve anything particularly hazardous. However, it is not just what you are working with that has to be taken into consideration. The activities of all personnel using the areas in which you work have to be considered. If they are working with hazardous substances there is always a chance that work surfaces/equipment may become contaminated. The next person to use the area/equipment is then at risk. In large, open plan labs with communal equipment areas this point is particularly relevant.
• A lab coat protects your own clothing from soiling/staining.
• When all staff wear lab coats it projects a professional image to visitors, especially those from industry where GLP is mandatory.

Statutory Instrument 1992 No. 2966: The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992

Regulation 10

Use of personal protective equipment (1) Every employer shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that any personal protective equipment provided to his employees [by virtue of regulation 4(1)] is properly used. (2) Every employee shall use any personal protective equipment provided to him by virtue of these Regulations in accordance both with any training in the use of the personal protective equipment concerned which has been received by him and the instructions respecting that use which have been provided to him [by virtue of regulation 9].

Statutory Instrument 2000 No. 2831: The Genetically Modified Organisms (Contained Use) Regulations 2000

Schedule 8, Containment Measures, Part II
Table 1a: Containment Measures for Activities Involving Genetic Modification of Micro-organisms in Laboratories

Containment Measures	Containment Levels
	1	2	3	4
Protective clothing	suitable protective clothing required	suitable protective clothing required	suitable protective clothing required; footwear required where and to extent the risk assessment shows it is required	complete change of clothing and footwear required before entry and exit

Note: bacteria, TC cell lines, etc are widely used in most SLS labs and they are almost always genetically modified in some way, so there is no escaping the fact that these regulations apply to us.

ACDP, Categorisation of Biological Agents According to Hazard and Categories of Containment 4th Edition 1995

Page 31, Laboratory Containment Level 1

Item 6: Laboratory coats or gowns should be worn when working in the laboratory and removed when leaving the laboratory suite.

Note: Laboratory Containment Level 1 applies when working with agents in Hazard Group 1. Such agents are defined as unlikely to cause human disease. Most TC and bacterial cells lines used in the lab fall into this category, although we do have an increasing amount of Hazard Group 2 equivalents being used, e.g. GM viruses. Therefore, as an absolute minimum, Containment Level 1 applies all labs where micro-organisms are being handled.

Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP), Biological agents: Managing the risks in laboratories and healthcare premises

This publication provides guidance on our duties under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) as they relate to biological agents (micro-organisms/infection risks).

Page 11, taken from Information box 3

The COSHH hierarchy and work with biological agents Although the principles of the hierarchical approach to control should be applied whenever practicable, there is a slightly different emphasis when working with biological agents. For example, all laboratory workers wear protective clothing in the form of a laboratory coat, but may not always need to use a microbiological safety cabinet. In addition, the physical control measures in place are underpinned by the principles of good microbiological practice, e.g. the use of good aseptic techniques. Such techniques need to be taught and practiced as part of the training for the work to ensure competence, both in terms of scientific technique and safe working practices.