Safety Procedures

To the student: You are required to read, understand and implement the safety precautions indicated in your laboratory manual or laboratory handouts, which are summarized below. Your signature on the attached sheet indicates your absolute willingness to abide by these precautions while you are in the laboratory.

1. Work in the laboratory only as authorized by your instructor. Do not perform unauthorized experiments.
2. You are required to purchase safety goggles and wear them as directed during some laboratory sessions.
3. Learn emergency procedures and know the locations of the nearest eye wash and chemical cleanup materials.
4. If you are injured or if any type of accident or fire occurs, IMMEDIATELY call your instructor for assistance.
5. Carefully read all instructions and thoroughly plan your work.
6. Wear appropriate clothing and shoes, not sandals, in the lab. Confine long hair.
7. Carefully read all labels on chemical bottles and familiarize yourself with the number/color hazards codes. Never return excess chemicals to the stock bottles. Do not put a pipet or a dropper directly into a commercial stock reagent bottle. Instead, pour an aliquot of the reagent from the stock bottle into a beaker. Use premixed lab reagents as directed in the instructions for specific laboratory exercises.
8. Do not eat, drink or smoke in the lab. Never taste chemicals. Smell chemicals cautiously by wafting the vapors toward you.
9. When mixing or heating chemicals in a test tube, point the test tube away from people.
10. Do not use bunsen burners or other sources of spark or flame in the vicinity of flammable liquids. Note that most organic solvents are flammable.
11. Dispose of all acidic solutions by pouring them into the acid-neutralization jug, and all alkaline solutions in the alkali-neutralization jug.
12. While mixing acid and water, always add the acid to the water, not vice-versa.
13. Fill a pipet by using a pipet bulb or mechanical pipettor only; never pipet by mouth.
14. If a spill occurs during regular hours, refer it to your instructor or other trained person immediately. If a minor spill occurs when no senior person is available, clean it up immediately by covering it with the appropriate cleanup material listed below; or by absorbing it with a polysorb pad and bagging this for subsequent attention:
    • for organic spills, use SOLUSORB
    • for acid spills, use sodium sesquicarbonate
    • for base spills, use citric acid
    • for mercury spills, use a mercury sponge.
15. Dispose of chemicals as directed by your instructor and in a manner consistent with federal, state and local hazardous waste disposal regulations. Organic solvents are never to be disposed of down the sink; receptacles will be provided as needed for their collection.

I have read carefully and understand all of the safety rules contained on this sheet. I also agree to read all rules for specific exercises contained in the laboratory manual or laboratory handouts required for this course. I recognize that it is my responsibility to obey them faithfully.

I realize that all chemicals are potentially dangerous; therefore I will exercise care in handling them. If I am unsure of the potential hazards of any chemical, I will discuss this with my instructor prior to using the chemical in question.

I understand that I am required to wear safety goggles at all times when directed to do so in the laboratory. I also understand that there are dangers involved in wearing all types of contact lenses in laboratory situations where reactive chemical agents, biological fixatives, or volatile organics are in use. I am aware that even when safety goggles are worn, the Biology Department strongly discourages wearing of contact lenses in these situations. If I do elect to wear contact lenses in the laboratory, I will inform my instructor and I will assume all responsibility for damages caused by wearing them in the lab.

If I have a medical condition such as, but not limited to, hypo- or hyperglycemia, diabetes, epilepsy, pregnancy, heart ailments, or any other medical condition which may cause sudden loss of consciousness, I certify that I am under a doctor's care and that my doctor has given me explicit permission to participate in this laboratory course. I will inform my instructor of my condition at the beginning of the semester, or as soon as I am aware of the existence of the medical condition.

I FURTHER UNDERSTAND THAT I AM PERMITTED TO WORK IN THE LABORATORY ONLY WHEN IT IS UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF A LABORATORY INSTRUCTOR, UNLESS SPECIFICALLY INFORMED OTHERWISE.

Sign both copies of this form. Retain one copy in your laboratory notebook. Your laboratory supervisor will collect and retain the other signed copy.