DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY

UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING LABORATORIES

Safety Facts and Disclaimer Form

In order to avoid personal injuries and injuries to fellow students while performing experiments in your Chemistry Laboratory Courses, please read the following information. Once you understand the contents, sign the back side of this form and return it to your teaching assistant by the end of the lab period.

1. Approved safety goggles (NOT safety glasses) are to be worn continuously while you

are in the laboratory. Safety goggles will protect your eyes against impact and splashes. These goggles are available in the book stores, storeroom or outside of WTHR 200. Wearing contact lenses in a chemistry laboratory can be harmful to your visual health. Contact lenses should be replaced by prescription glasses except in the rare cases where this is not possible. Contact lens wearers must report this to the teaching assistant at the beginning of the semester. In any event, wearers of contacts or prescription glasses must protect their eyes with safety goggles.

If you should get a chemical into your eyes, notify your teaching assistant immediately and wash with flowing water from the eyewash for 15-20 minutes.

2. Students, teaching assistants and other staff members are to be appropriately clothed in the laboratory at all times, including check-out. Appropriate clothing includes:

• clothing that protects the individual's body from the neck to below the knees. Sleeveless shirts, tank-tops or other clothing that do not cover the shoulders or abdominal area are not acceptable clothing to be worn in the teaching laboratory. Shorts or skirts that do not cover the individual's knees when sitting on a lab stool are not acceptable clothing to be worn in the teaching laboratory. You may opt to wear a lab coat that covers from the neck to below the knees. The lab coat must cover the knees when sitting on a lab stool and must remain buttoned while in lab!
  
• footwear that covers the entire foot. Open toed and/or open heeled shoes, including clogs and sandals, etc. are not acceptable footwear to be worn in the teaching laboratory.

3. Perform no unauthorized experiments.

4. Never use an open flame when working with organic solvents.

5. In case of fire or accident, notify your teaching assistant at once. (Note location of fire extinguisher and safety shower before they are needed. Wet towels are very effective for smothering fires.)

6. Take special care when working with strong acids or strong bases. Contact with these materials can cause severe chemical burns.

7. Do not touch hot glassware or hot hardware. Think before you act.

8. The Chemistry Department will seek medical assistance for you if you are injured in lab. Transportation will be supplied for you to a medical facility, as needed. You are responsible for all costs incurred!

9. Do not taste anything in the laboratory. (This applies to food as well as chemicals. Do not use the laboratory as an eating place and do not eat or drink from laboratory glassware.)

10. Exercise great care in noting the odor of vapors and, whenever possible, avoid breathing vapors of any kind.

11. Always use a suction bulb when filling a pipet. Never suction by mouth!

12. Don't force glass tubing into rubber stoppers.

13. Confine long hair securely when in the laboratory.

14. When working with electrical equipment, observe caution in handling loose wires and make sure that all equipment is electrically grounded before touching it.

15. Never work alone in the laboratory!

CONTINUED ON THE BACK SIDE!

Special Note Dealing with Wearing Safety Goggles in the Chemistry Teaching Laboratory

Safety is a very serious issue. Protect your eyes at all times, because unforseen accidents do take place and eyes cannot be replaced! Students and teaching assistants must continuously wear approved safety goggles (not safety glasses) while in the chemistry laboratory. This includes the entire time spent in the laboratory during check-out!

Students who do not follow this requirement during any experiment will be given a score of zero "0" for the experiment and told to leave the laboratory.

Students who do not follow this requirement during check-out, will be told to leave and assessed a fee for failure to check-out, plus any cost for unacceptable equipment.

I have read and understood the policy regarding safety facts and rules found on both side of this page.

YOUR NAME (please print) - ________________________________________

STUDENT ID # - _____-_____-_______

LAB ROOM # - __________________ LOCKER DRAWER # - __________

SIGNATURE - ____________________________ DATE - ________________

DAY LAB MEETS - M T W Th F (circle one)

TIME LAB STARTS - 7:30 11:30 1:30 2:10 2:30 or 2:50 (circle one)

RETURN THIS FORM TO YOUR TEACHING ASSISTANT

BEFORE LEAVING THE LAB.