Supplemental Notes for Safety Management

Laboratory safety programs are plans for preventing sickness and injury to personnel and damage
or destruction of physical assets.

The fundamental objectives of a meaningful laboratory safety program are:

1. To improve safety skills and attitude of all personnel
2. To develop a surveillance program for promptly identifying hazards
3. To formulate plans for promptly correcting all hazards
4. To coordinate laboratory safety efforts with the over-all hospital safety program.

An employee health program must include:

1. pre-employment physical examination with laboratory and radiological studies that
establish fitness for laboratory employment

findings and/or working conditions dictate a shorter interval.

3. Written reports of all work-related illnesses and accidents with review by director or
designee
4. Employee health records for the total period of employment.

A general safety program must include:

laboratory conduct.
2. Periodic supervisory staff meetings for the purpose of discussing safety; attention is given
to particular times and circumstances that lend themselves to deviation from policy (lack
of supervision, excessively busy work periods, etc.)
3. Orderly housekeeping standards for both laboratory and housekeeping personnel.
4. Signs indicating need for special precaution in area where posted; also, strategically
placed signs, indicating general need to avoid thoughtless and reckless behavior.
5. Orderly storage and arrangement of supplies and working materials; insistence on
adequate space.
6. Policies governing eating, drinking, smoking and safe attire within the department.
7. Periodic inspections by director or designee for purposes of indicating interest and
concern for the programs.
8. Consideration of periodic programs by outside persons with expertise in special areas of
laboratory safety.
9. Consideration of hiring a full or part-time safety officer
10. Coordinated efforts with hospital for assuring isolation of communicable diseases, control
of nosocomial infections, and plans for dealing with fire and disaster.
Hazards in the laboratory

1. Fire hazards fires can be divided into four important classes designated as classes A, B,
C, and D
a. Class A fire this is a fire of ordinary combustibles, for example, paper, cloth,
wood, trash, etc. This kind of fire maybe put out by water.
b. Class B fire - this is a fire of flammable liquids, for example, gasoline or organic
solvents. This kind of fire can be put out by a dry chemicals, foam or carbon dioxide fire
extinguisher. Never use water for such fire.
c. Class C fire this is an electric fire, for example, motor, wiring etc. Only dry
chemical or CO2 type fire extinguisher should be used. Water should not be used for third
type of fire.
d. Class D fire this a fire of combustible metals, certain chips, shavings, turnings
etc. This kind of fire maybe extinguished by the dry-power type extinguisher, sand or
NaCl.
* A useful monitor for fire hazards is the smoke detector. It gives the earliest warning of
Fire

2. Chemical hazards the danger which are associated with chemicals arise from their
toxicity and hazards due to burns, fire and explosions. There are two types of chemical
hazards:
a. external this is the result of caustic or corrosive substance like acids, bases,
strong salts, and silver nitrate. Precautions should be taken to prevent accidents like
splashes and container spills.
b. Internal this is the result of the toxicity of substances. Benzidine, odianisidine,
o-toluidine are known to induce cancer of the bladder in man some years
after the first exposure.

3. Radiation hazards the sources of radiation in the laboratory

a. radioactive isotopes the use of radioactive isotopes is becoming widespread
with the development of radio immunoassays.
b. x-rays the hazards from x-ray come primarily from special instrument such as
x-ray diffraction apparatus
c. ultraviolet sources the danger from UV arise from the lack of proper shield and
from human carelessness. UV irradiation can easily be controlled because of its shallow
penetration of solid materials including glasses. UV lamps us be turned off immediately
after use (to control microorganisms and to sterilize objects) to avoid over exposure.

4.Biological hazards the source of danger from biological sources (CSF, urine, blood etc) is
that they may harbour pathogens that can be transmitted by various routes to the
laboratory staff receiving, processing and disposing them.

5. Mechanical or physical hazards these hazards are associated with structural or

mechanical defects as slippery floors, projections that cause cuts and bruises like nails,
inadequate lighting, machinery with unprotected moving parts, etc.

6. Electrical hazards these hazards are attributed to improper grounding. Inadequate

wiring and improper insulation of equipment.

7. Thermal hazards laboratories have fire hazards because of the flames, heating devices
and electrical equipment. Contact burns of individuals with hot equipment as heater
and autoclaves are common problems.

8. Explosions and implosions the hazards from explosions are always potential when
explosive chemicals particularly compressed gasses are used in the lab with electrical and
heating equipment.

9. Noise it has as effect on the quality of the performance through fatigue and distraction.
Sudden unexpected noise may produce deleterious effects during critical manual
Procedures

10. Cryogenic hazards these are due to freezing and handling cold materials such as dry ice.

Safety equipment in the laboratory

1. Fire extinguisher these are of three general types
a. water type which is useful for fires of ordinary combustibles as wood, paper,
rugs, etc.
b. dry chemical type which is effective against most fires but particularly those
involving flammable liquids, metals, and electric fires.
c. carbon dioxide type which is useful for small fire due to flammable liquids.
2. Safety showers these must be conveniently located for use in accidents involving acids,
caustics and harmful liquids, clothing, fires, etc.
3. Eye washes these must be available to promptly flash the eyes in care of accidents.
4. Safety shields these protect workers from several type of potential accidents such as
exposure to various forms of radiation like laser beams. Safety shields should be made of
material that is shatter proof, fire retardant and able to filter out harmful radiations. One
important type of safety shield is a chemical hood.

Personnel protective equipment and materials

1. Clothing employee involved in using radioactive materials, suspected carcinogen and
pathogenic materials may be required to wear lab clothing when entering the workroom
and change when they leave.
2. Gloves rubber gloves are used when handling hazardous liquids; lead gloves when
handling radioactive materials; surgical gloves when handling pathogens; insulated gloves
when handling hot and cold objects; heavy leather gloves when handling certain animals.
3. Safety shoes they are required in the lab where heavy objects and equipments must be
moved
4. Hard helmet they are required when there is overhead machinery in the lab.
5. Safety eye glasses personnel should be required to wear safety glasses to protect
themselves from splashes, powder, UV exposure, flying objects.
6. Respirators these should be available in emergency situations where dangerous gases,
like boron, dry fluoride, dimethyl amino, ethylene oxide, hydrogen bromide are used or
produced.
7. Face masks these are used by personnel handling animal infected with pathogenic
airborne organisms.

Programs for handling chemicals

1. Prescribed containers and adequate storage space with secure shelving and proper
ventilation.
2. Permanent container labels with clear identification of contents; bold identification of
particularly harmful chemicals.
3. Policies for transporting containers, particularly if large, heavy or filled with especially
dangerous contents.
4. Instruction for dispensing, transfering and disposing of all chemicals.

Program for handling biological materials

1. Instruction for collecting transferring, storing and disposing of all specimens.
2. Policies for isolating test procedures performed on specimen suspected to contain
infectious agents.
3. Instructions for washing and the care and cleaning of work surfaces.
4. Instructions for cleaning and / or disposing of specimen collection equipment.

Fire prevention program

1. Physical facilities and operational practices that satisfy fire code.

3. Instructions for operating all heat-generating equipment (gas burners, hot plates, etc.)
4. Well-conceived and rehearsal plans in event of fire that are closely coordinated with
hospital efforts and include strategically placed and properly maintained san bucks, fire
extinguishers and fire blankets

Safety codes
Safety codes are aimed to serve in a form of a poster and placed in strategic point in a
laboratory so as to serve as a reminder to laboratory workers to be safety conscious at all
times.
1. Use proper techniques.
2. Use safety devices and protective clothing where necessary.
3. do not smoke, eat, drink, bite nails or pencils or apply cosmetics in the laboratory.
4. Assume that ever chemical and biological material is dangerous unless there is definite
information to the contrary.
5. Do not pipet with mouth
6. Fooling around should never be permitted in the laboratory
7. Hands should be washed as often as needed.
8. Be tidy, clean up spillage immediately
9. Keep hands dry to avoid shocks from contact with faculty electrical switches, plugs and
writing.
10. Turn off burners when not in immediate use
11. Do not work alone in the laboratory, a second person should be within call.