As inter­est­ing as it is work­ing in a chem­i­cal lab­o­ra­to­ry, you need to be high­ly cau­tious when it comes to han­dling chem­i­cals cor­rect­ly in order to avoid lab hor­ror sto­ries. Many a times, such inci­dents make head­lines, where severe dam­age was incurred due to care­less­ness or mis­man­age­ment. If lab man­agers and work­ers are more care­ful in their pro­ceed­ings, these inci­dents can be min­i­mized. List­ed below are the top 4 ways of avoid­ing lab hor­rors. Read on and find out how to be bet­ter pro­tect­ed while you are at work.

Wear Safe­ty Garb

The stan­dard lab attire pre­scribed inter­na­tion­al­ly includes : 
  • A work shirt that cov­ers the entire upper tor­so and arms
  • Low­er body cov­er­ing that cov­ers the entire leg to ankles. The cloth­ing must be thick enough to pro­tect exposed skin ; it can be an over­all, a pair of pants or a skirt.
  • Closed toe shoes that entire­ly cov­er the foot. Chem­i­cal splash­es on feet is a very com­mon lab inci­dent, thus it is ide­al if the shoes are made up of leather or any oth­er mate­r­i­al that resists pen­e­tra­tion by harsh liquids.

Fol­low Risk and Safe­ty Guidelines

The Euro­pean Union Com­mis­sion Direc­tive 2001/59/EC has stat­ed risk and safe­ty codes and claus­es for cat­e­go­riza­tion, cas­ing and mark­ing of haz­ardous sub­stances. It is very impor­tant that you fol­low them for your safe­ty, and for the safe­ty of oth­ers around you. It will ensure a safe work­ing envi­ron­ment in your lab.

Store Chem­i­cals Properly

All of the chem­i­cals in use must have a des­ig­nat­ed loca­tion where they must be returned after every use. This stor­age loca­tion must be marked clear­ly on the con­tain­er of the chem­i­cal. Also, make sure that you don’t store the chem­i­cals on the bench tops, where they can be eas­i­ly sub­ject­ed to igni­tion and can be knocked over acci­dent­ly.

Fol­low Han­dling Instruction

All con­tain­ers with­in a lab must be labeled in accor­dance with the instruc­tions for chem­i­cal usage and stor­age prop­er­ties. For exam­ple, car­cino­genic chem­i­cals must be seg­re­gat­ed with­in the trays to pre­vent any acci­den­tal leaks and spills. At Wat­son Inter­na­tion­al, we care about the safe­ty of our employ­ees ; this is why we have an elab­o­rate risk and safe­ty, as well as lab haz­ard state­ments. For more infor­ma­tion about our prod­uct lines and ser­vices, vis­it our web­site or click here to con­tact us. Our cus­tomer ser­vices rep­re­sen­ta­tive will get in touch with you short­ly in order to address and