Safety

Thanks for reading the safety pages. Reading this title page and the few linked subpages at the bottom of this section will take maybe 10 minutes. More details are available for you around the lab, but these are the necessaries.

As a New Person, you should have taken a look at the Safety handbook and asked questions of the people who trained you. If not, shame on you! Do it now. While you're at it, sign the log sheet behind the green tab that says you looked at the handbook, and know where it is kept. (This part may take an extra 5 minutes if you haven't already done it.)

Go on. I'll wait.

If you are working with a new hazard - whether new to the lab, or just new to you - it is your responsibility to ask questions until you understand what you're working with. There are lots of things that don't look dangerous around here. Asking questions doesn't make you look stupid or paranoid, it makes you look like a responsible and competent person that won't lose an eye for themselves or for anyone else, and it's always nice to work with people like that.

If you like concrete examples, ask Jenn about the incredible exploding sodium hydroxide bottle, or the postdoc who liked answering the phone with radioactive gloves on.

If you have an accident, don't freak out. Accidents happen to everyone eventually. Better to speak up so we can get everything cleaned up, fix anything that might be broken, and, if necessary, change our procedures so things work more smoothly in the future. Admitting an accident early can prevent huge costs later in time and $. When in doubt, ask!

In the event of an incident, or even if you just smell something like gas in the hallway:

1. Call Public Safety at 6-3333 for any problem that can't be taken care of by lab personnel. DO NOT CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT OR AMBULANCE DIRECTLY - they will get lost on campus. Public Safety will coordinate anything you need. Then make sure someone who knows what is happening is on the lookout to grab the Safety person when they arrive.

2. Get everyone to safety. Don't worry about experiments - people can repeat experiments, but experiments can't recreate either themselves or people

(yet).

3. Know what the hazards you were working with are, if you need to take any further action, and what action to take (containing a spill, evacuating the area, putting out a fire). If you can't handle the accident, or are unsure of how to proceed, put a sign up or otherwise secure the area so that nobody wanders in and makes a bigger mess unawares. Then find someone who knows what to do.

4. Know where the safety showers and eye washes are:

1. In the hall by the elevators.

2. If you are on the other end of the building, in the hall near Don's office and the Jadhav lab.

3. If you are in the TgF, there's an eyewash inside.

5. Fire extinguishers are near the door in each room, and there are fire alarms in most of them. The two fire extinguishers for 327/330A are in the workshop and next to the 330A door across from the elevator. The workshop one is a CO2 extinguisher, so it won't ruin all your work when you use it. Yay!

6. In the event of any kind of evacuation, our meeting site is the paved plaza in front of the Volen Center and near the entrance to G'zang.

7. If for some reason there's a larger evacuation and we can't get back into the lab, DON'T JUST GO HOME. Go to the meeting site, but move away from Volen to meet at the benches near the green student center. Stay there for a head count so that nobody has to send firefighters into Bassine looking for you while you're already safe at home.

Contacts and further reading:

Take a look at the Lab Jobs page to see who is the Safety Coordinator for the lab and who is the Drug Tzar.

Andy Finn is the Environmental Health and Safety guy on campus - 6-4262, afinn@brandeis.edu, website http://www.brandeis.edu/ehs/

Call 6-2561 for Waste Pickup and leave a detailed message including exact location. Make sure to ask for more tags/bins if needed!

Robin Bell is the Radiation Safety and Laser Safety guy (we care because we have a laser) - 6-4261, bell@brandeis.edu

For maintenance issues that need immediate action, call Facilities Services at their emergency number 6-8500.

Get MSDSs from the manufacturer, or look online - try here, here, or here. Current MSDSs are kept next to the Lab Safety manual.

Now read these subpages here: I swear it won't take long.

Animal Care Chemical Safety Compressed Gases Laser Safety MSDS/chemical inventory Throwing things away Viruses