Policy August 2003
Some lab manuals contain incorrect info.  This policy supersedes any lesser requirements made in lab manuals.

Complying with safety regulations is a minimum requirement for being allowed to work and learn in a chemistry laboratory.

Goggles:  For your safety, complete safety goggles (not safety glasses) must be worn in the laboratory at all times, including the day of check-out.  There are NO exceptions.  Safety goggles may be purchased at the local bookstores. 

Appropriate dress:   Everyone working in a teaching lab must be appropriately clothed at all times, including at check-out. 

  • Appropriate clothing covers the body from the neck to the ankles, shoulders, and feet. 
  • Shirts (tops) must cover shoulders, underarms, and the entire abdominal area when standing, sitting or reaching.
  • Pants and skirts must be long enough to reach the ankle when standing or sitting. Skin, between the bottom of the pants and top of the footwear, cannot be exposed.
  • Shoes must cover the entire foot. Footwear with open toes, open heels or other decorative openings are not allowed to be worn. 


Contact lenses:  Contact lens wearers are encouraged to wear glasses in the laboratory.  Chemicals and vapors can lodge behind the contact lens and cause severe damage to the eyes.  Contact lenses also make the use of an eye wash ineffective.  If you insist on wearing contact lenses in the laboratory, you must inform your teaching assistant of this at the beginning of the semester.  [LAS comment  -- these statements are not proven. See http://pubs.acs.org/hotartcl/chas/97/mayjun/con.html] 

Hair:  To avoid contact with lighted Bunsen burners and other potential hazards, longer than shoulder length hair is to be appropriately contained.  Rubber bands are available in the laboratory.

Audio-visual equipment:  Audio/visual equipment is not allowed in the laboratory unless the professor in charge of the course is using such equipment for educational purposes.

Food & beverages:   Food and beverages are not allowed in the laboratory.
  

NOTES:

"This policy...." applies to chemical lab work in teaching labs, when any chemicals are being used in any manner that could cause exposure to the TA, the student working with the chemical, or any other student.  In situations where there are no hazardous chemicals in use (and no spills or contamination remain from previous exercises), and therefore no risk of chemical exposure is present, it is not necessary to have PPE or special dress requirements.  It is always prudent to get an opinion from the Safety Committee if there are questions.  (Food and beverages are never to be allowed in rooms where chemistry labs take place at other times of the days.)

"working in a teaching lab" includes the students enrolled in the course and the Teaching Assistants.  For the purposes of this "Teaching Lab Dress Code," the rules here apply to the students and the TAs. 

For Prep Lab staff, Safety Committee members, Course Supervisors, Faculty, General Chemistry staff and any other Department of Chemistry administrative staff who enter the lab for short periods of time, the PPE and dress requirements are to be determined by their supervisors and the Prep Lab Director, but will include chemical splash goggles.

"shirts (tops) must cover...."  Coverage requirements are pretty well spelled out except for the amount of neck/throat regarded as must-be-covered.  It's a hard one to quantitate, not to mention it seems so entirely anal to have to do so.  By way of example, the The arrangements below provide appropriate coverage, BUT in the teaching labs, for the sake of not driving the teaching assistants insane, the Safety Committee Chair is recommending that any lab coat use will require that the lab coat (1) be a commercial manufacture lab coat, (2) have buttons that button up to at least sternum height and down past waist, and (3) be kept buttoned. 

<< OK lab coats

Jodie Foster not OK
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NOTE: coverage to above the clavicles is much better protection than the coverage provided by the standard issue lab coats available at the Chem Stores dispensary.

The clavicle is also refered to as the "collar bone," and in the photo of Jodie Foster here, her clavicles are not covered.