SAFETY REGULATIONS (ORGANIC LABS)

Safety is the primary concern in the chemical laboratory. Chemicals, particularly organic chemicals, are almost all potentially very dangerous. However, with the correct precautions all of the work which you will be asked to do may be performed safely. It is important that you know how to handle both the chemicals and the apparatus which you will be using. In addition, you must know what to do if an accident occurs. Your text has general sections on safety and first aid (pages 14-22) and special cautions associated with each experiment in a section called Safety Alert. Read them and learn them. Anyone who does not follow correct safety procedures will not be permitted to complete the course and will not receive credit for the course.

These following rules are specific to UMBC.

1. Wear goggles or safety glasses in lab at all times . Even if you are not working, others may be. Contact lenses should not be worn in the lab. Wear prescription glasses instead. Contact lenses can be extremely dangerous if chemicals are splashed in the eye.

2. Know the emergency procedures for corrosive spills on your person and for fires.

3. Know where the following are located: fire extinguishers; eye-wash; shower; acid-spill and base-spill wash bottles. Notice these apparatus during check-in the first week; questions regarding them will be on the first quiz.

4. Treat all chemicals as toxic. Do not breathe their vapors, taste them, smell them, or touch them.

5. Do not dispose of organic solvents, mercury, or strong acids or bases in the sink. Waste solvents are disposed of in separate waste cans according to whether they are halogenated or non-halogenated. Spilled mercury should be scavenged with sulfur. Solid wastes, including paper towels used for organic spills, are disposed of in the dedicated bottle.

6. Broken glass must first be washed free of water soluble residue or rinsed free of organic residue with acetone into the appropriate waste bottle, whichever is applicable. Residue-free glassware is then disposed of in the dedicated boxes. Trash is the only material discarded in the trash cans.

7. Wipe up your spills immediately.

8. Do not eat, smoke, or drink in the lab.

9. Do not leave reactions unattended.

   10Do not wear sandals or other open shoes.

10. Do not wash chemicals from the skin with organic solvents. Use water only.

11. Wear old clothes to the laboratory or use a lab coat. Store coats, sweaters, book bags, and purses in the areas provided, not at the bench where they can be ruined by chemicals.

12. Social visitors are prohibited from entering the instructional laboratories.

13. Never add anything TO concentrated acid, caustic or strong oxidant. Instead add acid, caustic or oxidant slowly and carefully to the other reagents.

14. Do not pour reagents back into stock bottles. Take only what you need.

15. At the end of the day's work, sponge off your bench and leave it clean. Once during the semester you will be required to clean up the common areas.

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