Laboratory Safety: Five Tips Businesses Must Abide By

Lab safety. It’s something that is obviously an important consideration, but there’s a lot to think about. If you’re not careful, you can easily find yourself endangering the welfare of both your business and the health of others. It’s imperative that you get this right above all else, and we’re going to go through the basics today. Here’s what you need in order to get started.

Personal Protective Equipment

PPE is what we refer to when we’re talking about things like goggles and special jackets. It’s the equipment that keeps you safe while you undergo tasks in the lab. There’s a lot of potential danger living in this space, and you need to be aware of it. Ensuring that your business spends the right amount of money on getting efficient PPE equipment is simply crucial. It’s also important to make sure employees don’t go wearing additional clothing that might get in the way.

Bespoke Labware

You can’t have a laboratory without laboratory equipment. That doesn’t mean spending as little as possible to get the job done, either. You’re going to need everything from cell culture equipment to high-tech machinery. It all needs to be fit for purpose, and it all needs to be maintained in the correct fashion. A failure to do this can result in severe health and safety hazards with potentially devastating consequences.

Elaborate Training Procedures

It should come as no surprise that every business with a laboratory needs to develop extensive training procedures. This requires all sorts of things. Firstly, you want to create an elaborate manual that goes through every single little process a staff member might encounter. Then, you want to hold regular training sessions and meetings with your staff to discuss lab safety. And, make sure you’re holding emergency drills just in case anything ever was to go wrong. You need to ensure your staff are 100% ready to undertake any task before letting them in the lab.

Lots Of Signage

There’s a lot of equipment to be found in a lab, and some of it looks very similar to the next lot of equipment. That’s why signage is absolutely crucial. Labelling everything will ensure that you don’t mix anything up. Organising equipment through signage will ensure that nothing gets lost or put in the wrong place, either. And, safety signage about how to operate certain equipment is important as nothing more than a refresher. You’ll all be glad for it.

Take Care With Chemicals

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that there are some incredibly hazardous chemicals out there. This is why you need to take every precaution to ensure they’re used correctly. Place instructions around the lab. Make sure chemicals are disposed of in the correct manner. And, make sure chemicals are organised in a suitable fashion so they’re easy to access for use. You’ll need a spill response procedure just in case anyone spills chemical contents, too.

It might sound a little overwhelming, but that’s the nature of a lab. It’s only a safe place if you allow it to be, so make sure you’re doing what’s necessary.