10 Stupid Lab Safety Mistakes

Keeping safe in the lab really only requires one thing: common sense. But if you look at what people are doing in the lab, you might think that common sense isn’t so common after all.

What are the most stupid things you have seen people do in the lab to put the safety of themselves and others at risk? Suzanne and I put our heads together to come up with 10 of the worst and most common examples of lab safety stupidity that we had witnessed (or committed!!).

Here they are… please feel free to add your own in the comments section..

1. Not reading the MSDS. None of us would ever use a chemical without checking the MSDS, would we? [Nick: I hang my head in shame at this point].

It is easy to get blase about safety and think that MSDSs are as neurotic as an over-protective mother. After all, the MSDS for water is pretty scary.

But sometimes even the most neurotic over-protective mother talks some sense. Take my example. I was working with a potent mutagen called Ethyl methanesulphonate (EMS) for several weeks – taking care to wear gloves and a lab coat at all times – before I happened to glance at the MSDS and notice that it was slightly volatile at room temperature, so I should have been handling it in a fume hood.

EMS is a potent mutagen and teratogen, however, I took a small crumb of comfort from the fact that is is only a “potential” carcinogen and that “It can induce mutations at a rate of 5×10-4 to 5×10-2 per gene without substantial killing.” ….I should be ok then (!)

2. Lab coats anywhere other than the lab (or not wearing a lab coat). Lab coats are there to keep nasty stuff off our clothes, so it’s likely that there are nasty things on our lab coats. Wearing lab coats in the office, coffee room, or anywhere else that’s not the lab is a bad idea because you’ll transfer the nasty stuff in there too.

It is very easy to convince yourself that you don’t actually get that much stuff on your lab coat. But a friend of mine (cheers Ian!) once gave me a great example that shows how wrong you’d be…

Labs that make printer dye look pretty much like the lab you work in. Scientists weigh, pipette, and pour chemicals together while wearing lab coats, gloves, and safety glasses.

The difference is that everything (and I mean everything) in the lab is covered in dye. The lab coats are covered in dye, the benchtops, the equipment… everything.

This illustrates that it is impossible to work with chemicals/bugs/whatever all day and not get them onto your lab coat (or your clothes if you are not wearing a lab coat!)

So if you wear your lab coat anywhere else, you will certainly be taking whatever you were working with, with you.

And if you aren’t wearing a lab coat you’ll be bringing it home. I hope you aren’t doing the cooking… E.coli relish anyone?

3. Not wearing safety glasses/goggles. This one doesn’t need too much argument, it’s a lab risk assessment basic. You only get one pair of eyes and during your career, you will definitely get glass/acid/powder of some sort in your eyes. If you are not wearing safety glasses, you might be lucky and avoid injury… but you might not.

4. Goggles/safety specs are not UV shields. We all know that UV transilluminators can cause us serious damage if we don’t protect ourselves. So isn’t it amazing how many people seem to think that their standard goggles will protect them from UV? Sunburnt retinas are not a good look.

5. UV transilluminator: eyes protected – sleeves = sunburn. Still, on UV transilluminators, we have seen people who while sensibly taking the time to protect their eyes with a UV shield forget about their hands and arms and happily cut out their bands without gloves, sleeves, or even factor 50 sunblock.

6. Balancing tubes “by eye” in superspeed centrifuges. Let’s say it again… superspeed centrifuges (i.e. those big ones that you use to spin your midiprep at 15,000xg and look like old washing machines) must be balanced by weighing the tubes on an accurate balance and adjusting their weights to within 0.1g. It is not sufficient to judge by eye whether the amount of liquid in the tubes is the same.

If you don’t do this, disasters like this (see number 4 in that article) can happen.

7. Eating at/near the bench. Do people actually do this? They might as well be mouth-pipetting (oh, wait – they do that too?). Remember the printer dye lab above? You will definitely be eating some of whatever you are working with. No one needs extra protein that much.

8. Using the lab as a kitchen. Do you know anyone who uses the lab microwave to heat up food, the fridge to store food, or distilled water to make coffee? Amazingly, we do.

9. Opening Beta-mercaptoethanol anywhere outside of a fume hood = BAD! Many of us will use beta-mercaptoethanol every day, but don’t cut corners with it… always open it in the fume hood.

Beta-Mercaptoethanol is considered a “severe” poison, causing “irritation to the nasal passageways and respiratory tract upon inhalation, vomiting and stomach pain through ingestion, and potentially fatal absorption if it contacts the skin”.

Opening it outside the fume hood is bad for you and bad for everyone in the building.

10. Head in the fume hood (or in laminar flow). This is my personal favorite because it is so stupid… and because I used to do it without realizing it until someone pointed it out.

Fume hoods can only protect you, and laminar flow hoods can only protect the stuff you are working with, if you keep your head out of the hood.

I once paid for this stupid habit with a weekend where everything smelled and tasted of paraformaldehyde. Yum.

Ok, so that is our top 10… now over to you.

Want to make hazard symbols clear to everyone to keep your lab and buddies safe? Download our free lab safety poster and pin it up in your lab. Or download our lab safety eBook for more comprehensive guidance.