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All students, who work in the laboratory, must consider the safety of their
work. What they do may seem not risky. However, it is dangerous. For example,
chemical engineering students may use some chemical substances. As suggested, the
amount of CH2CL2 in the finger should be less than 100µL. If they do not follow the
rules, and eventually something unwanted happens, making their hands broken. It
happens since that chemical can damage the tissue of hands, in which the side effect
can last in months, even years. The other instance can be seen in the electric shock
that took place in the national research institute of Taiwan. It occurred to a 43-year
man. Fortunately, he was safe after the officers' fast response that sent him to the
nearest hospital. 
Hence, the major concepts of lab safety are of great importance to consider.
They involve the understanding of potentially dangerous work environments, safety
cultures, and broad safety education. The safety guidelines can be divided into four
big parts, including 1). Do not work alone; 2). Do not scale up; 3). Check all
precautions and follow the standard operating procedures (SOP); 4). Protect yourself
and call for help if needed. These guidelines can be simplified as the common
slogan ABC (Always Be Careful). In a practical setting, we should mind the campus
safety, such as the call for help via fire department/ambulance (119) and police recue
(110), and university security controls via front gate (6177), AAEON (3799), and so
forth.
In case of a fire accident, some guidelines may have to be fully considered. All
building visitors should understand the evacuation plan. They must be familiar with
that evacuation plan, participate in a fire drill, and pay more attention to the fire alarm
once they hear of. Usually, every building has been equipped with fire evacuation
maps that guide visitors to safely escape from fire accidents. In addition, a fire
extinguisher can be found as well in the building. So, pay attention to the ways how to
extinguish the fire. Making an effort to avoid accidents for laboratory visitors are
everyone’s responsibility. They should pay more attention to safety precautions and
training, communicate and discuss with professors/officers, take references and notes,
obligate guidelines and SOP, and so on.
 The total risk of any laboratory events can be defined as the function sum of
severity and probability. The high number of accidents can be caused by seven
common causes (shortcuts, overconfidence, poor housekeeping, doing research
without all necessary information, safety procedure rejection, lack of preparation, and
mental distraction). Many research students want to speed up their research. It may
seem good, but they usually ignore the processing steps and only want some
shortcuts. Therefore, they are trapped and get accidents. Overconfidence and bad
housekeeping can be a reason to get accidents. Students in the laboratory usually work
in a not suggested condition which may result in ignoring their safety. 
Moreover, the students’ ignorance of necessary information, procedure, and
good preparation causes big problems in their research. It can trigger students to
conduct research without any guidelines (i.e. not wearing a lab coat). Mental
distraction can also be a motive behind the laboratory accident. The laboratory
accidents can be seen in the UCLA, Texas Tech, University of Wisconsin, and Yale
university laboratories. To avoid the occurring accidents, two big responses can be
considered, including the reduction of the reaction scale and the obligation of the SOP
and guidelines suggested. These two responses aim to decrease the accident severity
and the errors caused by humans, respectively.
In terms of self-protection, some guidelines can be fully considered. When
you have long hair, protecting it by pulling it back is strongly suggested. Secondly, it
is wearing shoes and lab coat. Thirdly, it is wearing safety goggles. Fourthly, it is
wearing safety mask. Finally, it is wearing the gloves if needed. The concepts of
RAMP (Recognize the hazards, Assess the risk of the hazards, Minimize the
risks, Prepare for emergency) may be used to lessen the detrimental effect of
laboratory accidents.
One more thing that should be thought considerably is the waste in the
laboratory. The waste should be thrown categorically. All research students must
throw their waste according to its categories, such as liquid or solid wastes. It is
crucial since those wastes can attract animals, such as mice and bugs, which can
disturb the laboratory work. Also, the kind of substance used in the research must be
fully considered since they may be dangerous. Chemical engineering and electrical
engineering researchers pay more attention to substances and electrical circuits used,
for instance. Hence, the researchers can work carefully to avoid any accidents that
may cause detrimental effects in the future.