Are you about to open your new lab facility? Have you finally completed the pathlab buildout to grow your lab? While you may have considered all the equipment, testing capabilities, storage areas, and flow in your new lab, you also need to consider safety as well. Lab safety is a priority to providing quality data and ensuring employee safety. These are a few ways that you can prioritize lab safety when you are working in the lab.
To keep your employees safe when working in the lab, they need to dress appropriately. Closed-toe shoes, safety goggles, and lab coats should be worn daily by anyone working with dangerous chemicals or client tissue samples. Additional gear such as gloves, hearing protection, and other equipment may be needed depending on the experiment. You should also tie your hair back and away from your face to avoid contaminating the testing materials and protect yourself when working with flammable materials.
Whether you are listening to the instructor or lab supervisor or following a process in a book, it's vital to listen, and pay close attention. Be familiar with all the steps to follow for all experiments, tests, and procedures from beginning to end before starting any process. This will prevent mistakes, accidents, and injury. Besides, it will preserve the equipment used by ensuring correct care.
If something goes wrong, it is critical to know where the safety equipment is and how to use it. Examining the equipment regularly to ensure it is in good working condition is a good idea. For instance, does the safety shower produce water? Does the water in the eyewash appear to be clean? If you do not properly train your employees, they may not know where to locate all of the safety tools and features of the lab. Take the time to check in with them to make sure they are aware of all these important aspects of the lab.
Eating and drinking in the lab is a form of distraction that is prohibited. Because of this, you need to provide your employees with other spaces to take their break and eat their lunch. When you are designing your pathlab buildout, you need to consider adding this area to your facility. Eating also poses a distraction when you need to be focused on your job. Similarly, drinking in the lab puts your experiment at risk as well, because you can spill or contaminate the tests.
One crucial aspect of laboratory safety is understanding the proper protocols to removing waste from the facility. Many specimens may be hazardous or biological waste, which requires specific instructions for removal. Talk to your employees about the proper waste removal for your facility and provide them with the proper bins and safety tips.
These are a few of the ways that you can prioritize safety in your lab facility. By keeping your employees safe in the lab, they will be able to perform their job without any concern or worry. This will also ensure that your tests provide quality, accurate, and reliable data to your clients. Contact Hankins Consulting for more lab consulting tips today.
