By : James W Zubrick
Email: j.zubrick@hvcc.edu
The organic chemistry laboratory is potentially one of the most dangerous of undergraduate laboratories. That is why you must have a set of safety guidelines. It is a very good idea to pay close attention to these rules, for one very good reason:
The penalties are only too real.
Disobeying safety rules is not at all like flouting many other rules. You can get seriously hurt. No appeal. No bargaining for another 12 points so you can get into medical school. Perhaps as a patient, but certainly not as a student. So, go ahead. Ignore these guidelines. But remember—
You have been warned!
1. Wear your goggles. Eye injuries are extremely serious and can be mitigated or eliminated if you keep your goggles on at all times. And I mean over your eyes, not on top of your head or around your neck. There are several types of eye protection available, some of it acceptable, some not, according to local, state and federal laws. I like the clear plastic goggles that leave an unbroken red line on your face when you remove them. Sure, they fog up a bit, but the protection is superb. Also, think about getting chemicals or chemical fumes trapped under your contact lenses before you wear them to lab. Then don’t wear them to lab. Ever.
2. Touch not thyself. Not a Biblical injunction, but a bit of advice. You may have just gotten chemicals on your hands, in a concentration that is not noticeable, and sure enough, up go the goggles for an eye wipe with the fingers. Enough said.
3. There is no “away.” Getting rid of chemicals is a very big problem. You throw them from here, and they wind up poisoning someone else. Now there are some laws to stop that from happening. The rules were really designed for industrial waste, where there are hundreds of gallons of waste that have the same composition. In a semester of organic lab there will be much smaller amounts of different materials. Waste containers could be provided for everything, but this is not practical. If you don’t see the waste can you need, ask your instructor. When in doubt, ask.
4. Bring a friend. You must never work alone. If you have a serious accident and you are all by yourself, you might not be able to get help before you die. Don’t work alone, and don’t work at unauthorized times.
5. Don’t fool around. Chemistry is serious business. Don’t be careless or clown around in lab. You can hurt yourself or other people. You don’t have to be somber about it; just serious.
6. Drive defensively. Work in the lab as if someone else were going to have an accident that might affect you. Keep the goggles on because someone else is going to point a loaded, boiling test tube at you. Someone else is going to spill hot, concentrated acid on your body. Get the idea?
7. Eating, drinking, or smoking in lab. Are you kidding? Eat in a chem lab? Drink in a chem lab??? Smoke, and blow yourself up????
8. Keep it clean. Work neatly. You don’t have to make a fetish out of it, but try to be neat. Clean up spills. Turn off burners or water or electrical equipment when you’re through with them.
9. Where it’s at. Learn the location and proper use of the fire extinguishers, fire blankets, safety showers, and eyewashes.
10. Making the best-dressed list. No open-toed shoes, sandals, or canvas-covered foot ware. No loose-fitting cuffs on the pants or the shirts. Nor are dresses appropriate for lab, guys. Keep the mid-section covered. Tie back that long hair. And, a small investment in a lab coat can pay off, projecting that extra professional touch. It gives a lot of protection too. Consider wearing disposable gloves. Clear polyethylene ones are inexpensive, but the smooth plastic is slippery, and there’s a tendency for the seams to open when you least expect it. Latex examination gloves keep the grip and don’t have seams, but they cost more. Gloves are not perfect protectors. Reagents like bromine can get through and cause severe burns. They’ll buy you some time though, and can help mitigate or prevent severe burns.
11. Hot under the collar. Many times you’ll be asked or told to heat something. Don’t just automatically go for the Bunsen burner. That way lies fire. Usually—
No Flames!
Try a hot plate, try a heating mantle (see Chapter 13, “Sources of Heat”). But try to stay away from flames. Most of the fires I’ve had to put out started when some bozo decided to heat some flammable solvent in an open beaker. Sure, there are times when you’ll HAVE to use a flame, but use it away from all flammables and in a hood (Fig. 1), and only with the permission of your instructor.
12. Work in the Hood. A hood is a specially constructed workplace that has, at the least, a powered vent to suck noxious fumes outside. There’s also a safety glass or plastic panel you can slide down as protection from exploding apparatus (Fig. 1). If it is at all possible, treat every chemical (even solids) as if toxic or bad smelling fumes came from it, and carry out as many of the operations in the organic lab as you can inside a hood, unless told otherwise.
13. Keep your fingers to yourself. Ever practiced “finger chemistry?” You’re unprepared so you have a lab book out, and your finger points to the start of a sentence. You move your finger to the end of the first line, and do that operation—
“Add this solution to the beaker containing the ice-water mixture”
And WOOSH! Clouds of smoke. What happened? The next line reads — “very carefully as the reaction is highly exothermic.”
Fig. 1 A typical hood.
But you didn’t read that line, or the next, or the next. So you are a danger to yourself and everyone else. Read and take notes on any experiment before you come to lab (see Chapter 2, “Keeping a Notebook”).
14. What you don’t know can hurt you. If you are not sure about any operation, or you have any question about handling anything, please ask your instructor before you go on. Get rid of the notion that asking questions will make you look foolish. Following this safety rule may be the most difficult of all. Grow up. Be responsible for yourself and your own education.
15. Blue Cross or Blue Shield? Find out how you would get medical help, if you needed it. Sometimes during a summer session, the school infirmary is closed and you would have to be transported to the nearest hospital.
These are a few of the safety guidelines for an organic chemistry laboratory. You may have others particular to your own situation.
ACCIDENTS WILL NOT HAPPEN
That’s an attitude you might hold while working in the laboratory. You are NOT going to do anything, or get anything done to you, that will require medical attention. If you do get cut, and the cut is not serious, wash the area with water. If there’s serious bleeding, apply direct pressure with a clean, preferably sterile, dressing. For a minor burn, let cold water run over the burned area. For chemical burns to the eyes or skin, flush the area with lots of water. In every case, get to a physician if at all possible.
If you have an accident, tellyour instructor immediately. Get help! This is no time to worry about your grade in lab. If you put grades ahead of your personal safety, be sure to see a psychiatrist after the internist finishes.
