Laboratory

Risk of:

• Infection.
• Allergies.
• Asthma.
• Harm to unborn child.

Possible causes:

• Exposure to infectious specimens, unfixed tissues or body fluids.
• Exposure to infectious aerosols during processing or sample container breakage in centrifuge.
• Poor work practices e.g. eating or drinking in the laboratory, poor hygiene.
• Unsuitable specimen packaging and transport.
• Inappropriate or inadequate PPE.
• Poor maintenance of engineering controls e.g. safety cabinets.
• Stagnant eye wash / emergency shower stations.

Risk of:

• Health effects such as poisoning, allergies, eye damage, burns (including freeze burns), harm to unborn child.
• Cancer.
• Fire.
• Explosion.
• Asphyxiation.

Possible causes:

• Exposure to latex consumables or enzymes.
• Exposure to corrosive, irritating, toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic or teratogenic chemicals via splashes or spills, inhalation, absorption or skin contact.
• Use of flammable or explosive chemicals, mishandling of gas cylinders.
• Inappropriate or inadequate PPE.
• Inadequate labelling of prepared reagents.
• Inadequate hygiene measures.
• Poor maintenance of engineering controls e.g. fume hoods, down-draft extractor tables.
• Operator error.
• Equipment failure.
• Careless handling and storage.
• Contact with very cold surfaces or fluids such as liquefied gases.
• Use of incorrect gases e.g. in anaerobic incubator.
• Asphyxiation from some non-toxic, non-flammable gases such as nitrogen or carbon dioxide.

Risk of:

• Burns.
• Fire.
• Electrocution.

Possible causes:

• Spill of liquid over electrical appliance.
• Production of static electricity when transferring or pouring flammable liquids.
• Unmaintained electrical equipment.
• Faulty or untested Residual Current Devices (RCDs).
• Overloaded sockets or extension leads.

Risk of:

• Pain in back, hands or arms.

Possible causes:

• Awkward posture e.g. working at microscopes, bio-safety cabinets.
• Repetitive movements such as pipetting, keyboarding at workstations, operating microtomes, using cell counters.
• Standing or sitting for long periods of time.
• Use of computers, inputting large amounts of data.
• Poor equipment design or set up.

Risk of:

• Physical injury.
• Death.

Possible causes:

• Implosion of vacuum equipment.
• Explosion of pressure equipment such as autoclaves.

Risk of:

• Burns.
• Smoke inhalation.
• Death.

Possible causes:

• Storage and use of flammable, explosive and oxidising substances or gases e.g. alcohol.
• Undertaking hazardous work operations.
• Faulty electrics.
• Use of appliances with hot surfaces or heating elements.
• Storing solvents in non - spark proof fridges.

Risk of:

• Cuts.
• Inoculation injury.
• Infection.

Possible causes:

• Broken glassware e.g. test tubes, flasks, centrifuge tubes.
• Accidental injection with needles, pipettes, broken glass, slides, cover slips.
• Handling microtome knives, scalpels and disposable blades.
• Adjusting or unblocking probes on analysers.

Risk of:

• Burns.

Possible causes:

• Contact with hot paraffin wax in tissue processors.
• Working with hot items e.g. reagents or agars.
• Contact with hot surfaces e.g. ovens, autoclaves, heating plates or burners.
• Contact with cold surfaces e.g. cytochambers or dry ice.

Risk of:

• Genetic defects.
• Cancer.

Possible causes:

• Exposure to radioactive material whilst performing disease diagnosis (in vitro or test tube studies on blood, urine or cells).
• Spillage of unsealed radioactive material.

Risk of:

• Increased vulnerability in event of incident.

Possible causes:

• Working alone providing an out of hours service.
• Unsafe system of work.

Risk of:

• Entanglement.
• Eye strain.
• Physical injury such as trapped fingers.
• Explosion.
• Hit by parts.

Possible causes:

• Use of rotating equipment such as mixers, centrifuges.
• Improper use / unbalancing of equipment e.g. centrifuges not properly balanced.
• Broken interlocks on equipment.
• Working with microscopes, computers etc.
• Implosion of vacuum equipment.
• Explosion of pressure equipment such as autoclaves.
• Fingers caught in lids of machines.

Risk of:

• Hearing damage or loss.
• Physiological effects.
• Work related stress.
• Increased risk of accidents.

Possible causes:

• Exposure to noisy equipment (large analysers, biological safety cabinets, centrifuges, refrigerator fans) or noisy tasks.

Risk of:

• Eye damage.
• Heating effects / burns.
• Skin cancer.

Possible Causes:

• Exposure to UV light in bio-safety cabinet or if carrying out fluorescence procedures.
• Exposure of employees with pacemakers to microwaves in microwave based processors.

Risk of:

• Minor injuries such as cuts to major injuries such as broken bones, concussion and even death.

Possible causes:

• Wet, uneven or damaged floors.
• Loose or trailing cables.
• Improper use of floor mats e.g. histology laboratory.

Risk of:

• Stress.

Possible causes:

• Exposure to vibrating equipment such as mixers or vortexes.

For further information on related controls click here.