The chemistry laboratory, while highly instructive educationally, contains a large number of hazards which students must be cognizant of. Safety in the chemistry laboratory is the joint responsibility of all students as well as all faculty and staff members involved in its delivery. It is therefore your responsibility to ensure that everything you do is safe and follows approved procedures.

About These Rules

Safety rules are designed to help prevent accidents and injuries.

Apart from these general rules, for many experiments there are specific directions that are provided to help ensure safety. You are responsible for following these as well as any instructions given by your instructor as well.

The rules here are based on:

• Indiana University’s Laboratory Safety and Chemical Hygiene Plan.  This document represents a summary of the expectations and, where these rules conflict with that document, the IU Chemical Hygiene Plan supersedes the rules on this page.  This is as directed by the IU Laboratory Safety Policy which you must abide by.
• ACS Committee on Chemical Safety, Safety in Academic Chemical Laboratories.

Your Responsibilities

You are responsible for familiarizing yourself with and following these rules.  For safety reasons, the following overarching rules apply:

• Students are expected to behave in a professional manner at all times.  Nothing is so urgent as to supersede the need to ensure safely.
• Students who are pregnant must inform the laboratory instructor as soon as possible to discuss potential, specific hazards.
• If you have any questions or concerns about your experiment, please be sure to consult your instructor before proceeding.
• Do not perform unauthorized experiments.
• Let your instructor know immediately if an accident occurs.

Laboratory practice and safety regulations may change with time as new rules and regulations are promulgated by law, by IU policy, or by campus/school mandates, or as an instructor determines.  These instructions may supersede these general laboratory rules. It is your responsibility to make sure all safety rules are followed, including any announced by your instructor or laboratory management.

By participating in this course, you signify your absolute willingness to follow these safety rules and other instructions provided by your instructor and the laboratory supervisor. Breaches of safety rules may lead to ejection from the laboratory without make-up time being provided as well as other grade-related sanctions.

Dress Code

Students in the chemical laboratory are expected to abide by the following dress code:

• Eye Protection: The wearing of safety goggles that protect all sides of the eye is required at all times while you’re in the laboratory; there will be no exceptions. Safety glasses that do not completely protect your eyes from all sides are strictly forbidden.
  • The wearing of contact lenses is discouraged but not forbidden. Students who wear contact lenses must place a red dot on the side of their goggles (available from your instructor).
  • Sometimes goggles will fog up. Step away from your bench when your goggles start to fog up, and wipe your goggles quickly to remove the fog.
• Laboratory Coat: All students must wear a lab coat throughout the laboratory period. Students are required to have their own lab coat.^[1]
• Laboratory Gloves: These are available next to the entrance of the laboratory.  In general we do not need to obtain more than one pair of gloves per lab period unless they are damaged or are otherwise unusable.
• Street Clothing:^[2] You are expected to wear the following:
  • Shirts with sleeves; long-sleeved shirts are preferred.
  • Long pants, skirts or dresses; shorts and short skirts are not allowed.
  • Closed-toe shoes; sandals and other open-toe shoes are not allowed.
  • Loose clothing should be avoided and constrained where appropriate.
• Hair: Hair must be tied back when flames are used in the laboratory.

Masks

Except under specific circumstances, there is no requirement for you to be wearing masks in the laboratory.  However, if you choose to wear a mask, the following rules apply to avoid chemical contamination:

• A disposable surgical mask must be worn.  These will be provided near the entrance of the laboratory.
• Replace the mask you were wearing with the provided mask.  Keep the mask you wore into the laboratory in a safe place.  ^[3]
• If you need to leave the laboratory for any reason (e.g. bathroom break), get a baggie and place your laboratory mask into the baggie. Wear the mask you wore into the laboratory outside the lab.
• At the end of the lab period, dispose of the mask you wore into the laboratory in the trash can and put on the mask you wore outside the laboratory.^[4]

Laboratory Behavior

It is important that all students in the laboratory behave in an appropriate manner in order to ensure that the laboratory environment is as safe as possible for everyone.

Do

You must

• Be prepared for every experiment. You should understand the steps involved in the experiment before you walk into the laboratory. If you’re unprepared and/or do not understand the procedures you are performing, you will potentially make dangerous mistakes in your procedure.
• Follow approved procedures. Consult with your instructor if you believe it would be a good idea to deviate from planned procedures.
• Label all containers you use appropriately using lab tape and markers.
  • If chemicals need to be kept in the laboratory, you must include a label that has at minimum: the full chemical name, your name, and today’s date.
• Keep everything tidy in the laboratory and wipe up any spills as they occur. Be sure to tidy up and wipe down the bench before you leave the laboratory.
• Rinse all glassware with tap water and remove as much of the chemical residue as possible.
  • Glassware from your drawer should be washed with soap and then rinsed with tap water, followed by deionized water.
  • Other glassware will typically be placed in a designated dirty dishes pan.
• Use fume hoods when experiments result in the release of toxic or flammable fumes.
• Ensure that centrifuges are balanced when you use them. This means that opposing sides on a centrifuge rotor have about the same mass on each side.
  • If you do not have two similar/identical test tubes/centrifuge tubes, you may add tap/distilled water to an empty test tube/centrifuge tube of the same type to balance your other tube.

Do Not

The following activities are explicitly forbidden in the laboratory. Failure to follow these rules is grounds for removal from the laboratory as well as other sanctions at the discretion of relevant faculty and staff:

• Enter the laboratory without an instructor being present.
• Food and drink are explicitly forbidden in the laboratory.
  • It is permissible to keep sealed food and drink containers in your bag; however, it must not be visible in the laboratory and, most importantly, eating and drinking is forbidden in the laboratory.
  • Chewing gum is explicitly forbidden.
  • Occasionally, food and drink items are used as chemicals. In these instances, they are treated as chemicals and must not be consumed
• Applying cosmetics/make-up is forbidden.
• Do not use chipped or cracked glassware; this should be reported to the instructor.
• Smelling chemicals by snorting them is forbidden. Occasionally, you may be directed by your instructor to waft chemicals by bringing the scent of products to your nose using your hand.
• You must not pipette by mouth.

Waste Disposal

For environmental, health and safety reasons, hazardous waste from the laboratory must be segregated appropriately and disposed of in accordance with state and federal law.  For most experiments, instructions will be given explicitly.

• Only non-hazardous solid waste shall be disposed of in the trash cans.  If you don’t know, please ask your instructor.  It is better to assume it is hazardous than otherwise.
• Clean, broken glass (or disposable glass components) shall be disposed of in the glass boxes. Broken glass should be reported to the instructor who will clean it up and dispose of it.
• Unless directed by your instructor, waste chemicals must not be disposed of down the drain. All chemicals must be collected and disposed of in designated containers provided in the front fume hood.

Procedures for Common Problems

Inevitably spills, breakages, and other problems occur in the laboratory. The following guidelines are provided for most problems.

Chemical spills

• Small chemical spills on the bench should be wiped down with towels as soon as possible, assuming you know what it is.
• Larger scale chemical spills (and any spills of chemicals that you aren’t sure of) shall be referred to the instructor, who shall contain and clean up the spill using materials from the spill kit in the laboratory.

Broken glass

If glass is broken, it should be reported immediately to the instructor for clean-up. Do not attempt to clean this up.

Fire

• Small-scale laboratory fires should be reported to the instructor.
• In larger-scale fires, be sure to sound the alarm and evacuate as soon as practicable.

In case of fire, all students must follow instructions provided by your instructor.