Safety in the Laboratory

All chemicals, however common or innocuous, have inherent dangers. Ingest too much salt, NaCl, and you will be ill. You can drown in two inches of water.

The chemicals we use in conservation labs, however, need careful handling and special precautions. To maintain a safe work environment and safe work practices, you need to be aware of the risks and the precautions you should take.

After completing this tutorial you will:

• Be aware of the routes of exposure to chemical substances, including inhalation, ingestion, through skin damage, and absorption
• Know that the only way to reliably identify what is in a chemical container is to make sure that it is properly labeled
• Understand that long-term exposure to small amounts of a chemical can cause an undesirable reaction
• Know some of the resources for safety rules and procedures that should be available in your lab
• Have a basic set of behavior rules for the lab

 Enter tutorial.

Useful links on this topic:

• International Chemical Safety Cards
• NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety) has published a pocket guide to chemical hazards.
• OSHA guidelines
• Set Up for a Safe Space: A Chemical Hygiene Plan
• There is help on reading an MSDS in CoOl.
• JAIC Online
• Dicus, Diana Hobart ; “One response to a collection-wide mold outbreak: How bad can it be- how good can it get?”; JAIC 2000, 39(1).
• Goldberg, Lisa; “A history of pest control measures in the anthropology collections, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution”; JAIC 1996, 35(1), 23-43.