Health and Safety in the School of Biology

Donna Pierz-FennellSchool of Biology Manager dp61@st-andrews.ac.ukHealth and Safety Officer Purdie 352, x3626

Safety and the Lab

•Science is a hands-on discipline

•You’ll be doing many activities in the lab that potentially require the use of hazardous chemicals and (expensive!) lab equipment

•Safety for you, and for others sharing the lab space, is theSchool’s number one priority

School of Biology Health and Safety Manual

Safety in the School of Biology

At 51+ pages, the H&S manualis not environmentally sensible to print out a copy for each person...

Contains information on:– School H&S structure– General Lab safety– Safety regulations and procedures– Security after hours and overnight

Responsibilities of Staff and Students in the Lab

• Supervisors have a duty to ensure the day-to-day Health and Safety of staff, postgraduate and undergraduate students working in their lab.

• In order to do this, all Staff and Students need to advise supervisors, lecturers, demonstrators or techniciansin the lab about all accidents, dangerous incidents or near misses.

Safety First: Your Responsibilities in the Lab

• Good lab practice is to be responsibleat ALL times. No fooling around or practical jokes—these can go wrong and get someone hurt.

» You’ll have chemicals on your hands, so be aware of how you handle items like phones, tablets, lip balm and telephones. Food and drink are absolutely not allowed in the lab.

» EVERYONE is responsible for keeping the lab a safe place to work!

Do you recognise an unsafe situation when you see one?

Safety in the lab means always being prepared for the

unexpected…

A final thought...

If you don’t know, ask.

Please ask. Ask anyone.

Just don’t ignore the question and hope it goes away.

Sometimes it does, but not inthe way you expected...