How cautious are you in the lab?

R

RateLimit

Registered Senior Member
I'm just wondering if any of you follow the standard lab safetly precautions? Or you just ignore it most of the time, like me :D

So the other day I was working with a gel that had EtBr on it already. I touched the gel without gloves on! Oh I had an open would from a knife cut 2 days before, for those who don't know, EtBr is a mutagen. =/ So we'll see in ten years ;)

I don't work under the hood either when handling Phenol/Chloroform its a neurotoxin. =/
 
You seem proud of being stupid. The most irritating thing I can think of is people who wear gloves and then touch everything in sight, (i.e. the computer mouse, doors). But I did find that such people tend to be crap in labs because none of their experiments seem to work, perhaps because their DNA samples are contaminated and they are such a hazard in cell culture.

On this note, one of the most horrific pictures I’ve seen was a guy who slipped and fell on a microbiology Petri dish. The normally harmless microbe infected the guys face.
 
my labbench is always a horrible mess, but I have never really got any problems with RNA work. You just have to know when you can be sloppy and when not. Most times you can.

Interestingly there are very easy here about 35S (radioactive sulphur). You can just use it here anywhere and throw away waste trough the sink. It's kind of dangerous because there are always assholes who don't give a shit about other people and mess everything up...
 
Why should I be? I think I already told everyone the story about the laser and the slice of ham?
 
i'm pretty neurotic about cleanliness and i'm careful as hell about inhaling anything. i practically shove open chemical containers under the hood the whole time they're open. it pisses me the hell off when other people carry open containers around the room, almost as much as people who smoke around me without my leave (not that they'd get it).
 
lab work

I'm pretty cautious, I wear gloves when I should etc.
If I put all the work into doing something, I don't want my laziness to ruin its chances of working, but also know what is "good enough" for most things.

So do any of you eat in the lab? Some schools (like mine) forbid it, while at others it's common. I would hate to admit to some of the things we did when I was away last summer, let's just say that Environmental Health and Safety would have had a field day.
 
I do! We use the bunsen burner once to make top-roman once.

Then again my lab has only as a couple of harmful chemicals (All I can name of the top of my head is a 60lb tank of nitrogen and several gallons of methanol)… there was that mercury inspection we fail several months ago, turned out there was very small puddle of that shit under one of the counter tops… I receiver five time normal mercury exposure (105 ppb in air, average house has 20ppb) I don’t think I would sue :)
 
Originally posted by RateLimit
I'm just wondering if any of you follow the standard lab safetly precautions? Or you just ignore it most of the time, like me :D

So the other day I was working with a gel that had EtBr on it already. I touched the gel without gloves on! Oh I had an open would from a knife cut 2 days before, for those who don't know, EtBr is a mutagen. =/ So we'll see in ten years ;)

I don't work under the hood either when handling Phenol/Chloroform its a neurotoxin. =/
Click to expand...
I would throw you out of my lab. Idiots like you are the reason conscientious people get maimed or killed.
 
you can also look at things in perspective. I'm sure your are not meant to ingest Ethanol when working, because it is toxic. But then you go home and drink a beer.
 
Wow some of you people really do need some manners. Perhaps it was just the way I phrased things that got you all hot and bothered ;) Anyway I think my point is that, once you have been in a lab for quite some time, you just are not as conscientious as when you were starting out. I mean you just don't think twice about some things, and you just do it! And my not being as anal about standard lab safety doesn't mean I will not be a good future scientist. I get results! And I do make a good impression, otherwise my PI would not have invited me back every summer to contribute to the lab. MInd you, I am only a junior at undergrad.
 
My only occasional weakness was pouring LN2 when wearing shorts. Given that fate is cruel, it was always when I only needed like a dewar's worth to freeze some samples and that would be it.

My first job as an undergraduate in my old lab was to redo the chemical inventory in accordance with federal and university regulations. A real eye-opener. The number of things they can fine you (both inventory and otherwise) for is unreal. My old boss (being the Machiavellian type that he is) probably realized that and saw the job as a way to instill upon me the value of lab safety.

As for being a stickler about lab safety, just wait until you have an encounter with dried solid picric acid. That was not a fun afternoon.
 
I was usually pretty good, but there were certain things which I just didn't bother with. The "acid" used in highschool was the most diluted, weak, useless stuff...I got it on my hands all the time, washed my hands for a minute at the end of class, and never bothered with gloves. Now, the stuff we had in college was a different story...


And yeah, I hate it when people put gloves on, then touch everything around as if they didn't. conpletely destroys the point of gloves! cross-contamination, anyone?? Our computer mouse always smelled like preservation chemichals. :(


When ever doing a dissection, I usually had on glove on the left hand I used this to touch the subject and for what ever I needed doing that involved that set of chemicals/biological agents. My ungloved right hand only touched clean tools and the pencil/pen used for notes/drawings. There were a few things which could not be easilly dissected w/ only one hand available, though. for those, I two-gloved it.

I figured as long as the experiment was not effected (like trying to figure out why your acid is turning weird colors while in the beaker you never bothered to wash), and you and your co-workers are not in danger (like the LN2 thing above :eek: ), do whatever. Then again, the most dangerous thing I've ever worked with was a fun population of brown recluse spiders, so I've never been in a really dangerous lab environment.
 
I will probably work in a lab when I am older, but in chemistry class, I am always told to put on my safety goggles. I am only doing titrations with 0.22 mol/L HCl though. My frieds freaked when I put some on my hands to show it is harmless. but when I am working in a real lab, I will follow the proper safety procedures.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top