The working individual is solely responsible for his/her safety in the laboratory.
1. The working individual should be aware of the practical experiments carried. i.e he/she must be aware of the aim/objectives, principle, materials, reagents, chemicals and working procedure of the experiments that they are doing.
2. The working individual should be aware of the microorganism that he/she is handling, the pathogenicity, precaution, and disease preventing procedures. If the working person has low immunity, they will be having more chances to get diseased or infected by the pathogens.
3. The experiments must be carried individually. The students must have personal experience in biological experiments since it deals with the different life forms.
4. Group discussion, chatting and gossiping should not be encouraged while doing practicals. This is the major reason for lack of concentration and leads to accidental errors in the practical session.
5. No one should be allowed to drink, eat inside the laboratory.
6. The working individuals should wear laboratory coats and it must be buttoned while in the laboratory. This is to prevent the individual from stains, cultures and other chemicals.
7. The working individuals should wear closed-toe shoes. Open-toed shoes, canvas shoes, and sandals to be avoided for laboratory purpose because it cannot prevent individuals from getting infections from broken glass pieces and chemical spills.
8. The working individuals should keep their hands and other materials away from their face, nose, eyes, ears, and mouth. In any mean, the microbial culture and chemicals should not get contact with the skin.
9. The use of cosmetics and air fresheners should be avoided inside the laboratory. It might contain flaming materials.
10. The working individuals should wash their hands with a disinfectant solution before carrying out the experiments and before leaving the laboratory after finishing the experiment.
11. The working individuals should wear protective eyewear while performing the microscopic examination and working with vapourising chemicals (semi-polar and non-polar solvents) which cause irritation to the eyes.
12. The working individuals should tie their long hair behind the head to minimize the risk of fire hazard and contamination of the experiments.
13. While performing the experiments the working individuals should not wear rings, bracelets or any other kind of fancy materials like stickers and tattoos.
14. The working individual should not do mouth pipetting for taking water, solvents, and acids. They should use pipetting bulbs, fillers, and other volumetric pipette aids etc. Micropipettes must be used for the aspiration and dispensing of microbial culture broth and liquid cultures.
15. The working individuals must be familiar with hazardous chemicals and appropriate precautions.
16. Breakage of glassware is a common accidental fact and it cannot be avoided in the laboratory. I have personally surveyed on breakages caused by working personals during the practical session and the report was tabulated below.
| % of Breakage Caused By | General Lab | Research Projects | Degree Projects |
|---|---|---|---|
Bachelors
|
2-3
|
5-7
|
5-7
|
Masters
|
1-2
|
3-4
|
3-5
|
Doctoral
|
0.5-1
|
1
|
<1
|
Mentors
|
<1
|
<1
|
-----
|
Technical Staffs
|
<1
|
-----
|
-----
|
17. If the working individual is injured by any means inside the laboratory, they should immediately report it to the prior person who is in charge of the practical session. Even if it is small cut also they should report to the technical assistant or course instructor to get proper first aid to prevent pathogenic infections.
18. Do not take any laboratory materials like chemicals, glassware and small apparatus outside the laboratory without proper permission of the course instructor.
19. Always be careful with coverslips, syringes or any other sharp tools required for practical experiments and flaming materials like bunsen burner etc.
20. The working individual may wear plastic or rubber hand gloves while working with the microorganisms to avoid microbial contact with the skin.
21. Exposure to UV light for a longer period is more hazardous. It should be avoided or the exposure time should be minimized.