Yes we know salt and water arent dangerous. We ask that you wear labcoats etc. in the lab despite not working with anything dangerous so that you form a habit of using protective lab garb regardless. Because a lot of accidents in the lab cause harm because someone thought it was safe to lower their gaurd and it wasn’t.
Case in point: one of my undergrad professors during his time at grad school walked around in the lab without his safety goggles on. He felt comfortable doing that because he wasn’t himself working on anything particularly dangerous at the time. He was just walking from one end of the lab to the other. Well it turns out that someone else was. There was a fairly good sized glass bottle with fuming nitric acid and other stuff for a reaction in it that was boiling away in the fume hood. No I dont know why the sash was as high as it was. There was a funnel sitting in the neck. Occasionally the jug would “bump” in other words, some liquid would spurt up top due to a slight build up in pressure caused by intermittant boiling. And one time while he was walking by, it burped a lot more violently than it normally would and some of it sprayed into his eyes while he was walking by. He spent the next two weeks in a dark room occasionally dropping antibiotic eye drops into his eyes so his corneas would heal. Apparently it was fairly painful and every blink felt like he rubbed sandpaper over his eyes. If it had been a strongly basic solution, it would have eaten his corneas and potentially blinded him permanently. Point is, we are trying to stop you guys from becoming too casual in the lab so you dont have your corneas half eaten by nitric acid because you felt safer than you actually were.
Same for bicycle helmets. Maybe you are not crashing because you feel like pro rider and you are just biking 500m today, but someone else might run into you by accident making you crash. Same for seatbelts in the parking lot.
To add, labcoats don’t just mitigate splash hazards. When walking around lab and working at the bench, you can brush up againt all kinds of surfaces that, despite people’s best efforts (or less-than-best if in school), may not be perfectly clean. The coat guards against contamination of your skin, yes, but also of your other clothing, which may transfer the contamination to skin, eyes, or mouth by inadvertent contact later. I’ve got a sweater with a lovely nitric acid stain (read: a small charred hole) from such a scenario, though that was partially due to a poor coat fit.
Also, I see you premeds. Button up your damn labcoats and do not leave the lab with them on. This ain’t TV.
Wearing appropriate PPE is sexy. If you’re not going to do it for your own health, do it to impress the freaky labrats.
Found the safety guru…
tips faceshield
I knew an actuary once… their company specialized in various healthcare risks. this guy specialized in workplace hazards, and occupational health (the company itself was on the ‘what are the risks of xyz proceedure’, but they also had him for liability type things.)
a generally nice and decent guy, but he had some incredibly strange phobias.
I’m a person who is less phobic and more risk averse. For example, I used to ride a motorcycle daily for my commute (on long-term hiatus). I did a great deal to mitigate risks involved including taking two and three wheel MSF courses, riding only when safe, sane and sober, researching gear safety standards and testing requirements, using that information to buy the best gear that I could afford, and riding ATGATT.
Despite all of the risk mitigation, I still ended up in the hospital after getting sideswiped by an SUV. I avoided moving in case I had a neck injury since I involuntarily slowed myself with the visor of my helmet and got hit by my bike after sliding for a bit (high-side get-off - nothing quite as profanity-inducing as looking back to see a 480lb/218kg chunk of metal and plastic gaining on you while you’re sliding, uncontrolled down a highway at about 25mph/40kph). I was even able to give my wife a phone call before the ambulance arrived to let her know I’d be late and remove my gear non-destructively with some help from the EMTs.
After being triaged in the trauma ward, I was wheeled out into the hall because my injuries were so minor and another motorcyclist was being admitted who wasn’t wearing a helmet. The guy was actively bleeding from his head, extremely confused, and kept getting off of his gurney and wandering around yelling every time the medical staff wasn’t paying attention. It wasn’t good.
My discharge came about 16 hours with my worst injuries being a severe ankle sprain, a unilateral adrenal gland hemorrhage (an esoteric injury that required no surgical intervention - basically internal bruising/bleeding of an adrenal gland), and a minor abrasion about the size of a nickel (~21mm diameter) that was treated with a bit of antiseptic ointment and an adhesive bandage. I was sent home with a cane and prescription for pain meds. Now, my main lingering issue is an ankle that appears to react to changes in atmospheric pressure.
With replacement gear, I’d definitely be riding again but, have a wife with GAD who is very loss averse and don’t feel right putting her through increased anxiety.
TL;DR - Always wear appropriate PPE for the risks that may be present.
I’m glad you’re safe!
I’m risk adverse enough you’d never catch me on those death machines!
But like, he was afraid of stepstools where he was perfectly happy on 40’ ladders. There were a lot of things. (Personally, the reason you’re more likely to die falling off a stepstool is cuz you don’t respect it. He knew that, but also… “nope”,)
He was good at his job, and he was always polite and considerate. (Including some small but memorable gestures.)
Get in the habit. Someday you’ll be in front of a vat of boiling hydrofluoric acid, and you’re gonna want to be comfortable in all that PPE.
Wubby7
If you know, you know
I don’t know, how do I know?
I can explain. First, you need to understand that this
Well you know… It’s just when he
Wubby7
wubby7
CMV: Lab coats give a false sense of security that leads to more dangerous actions and does more bad than good on the long run
This has “dont wear your seatbelt or wear condoms” energy. It never made any sense to argue that point there and it doesn’t make sense here either. Wear your lab coat and goggles or you’re going to be kicked out of labs until you grow up.
lab coat or nitrile gloves for that matter aren’t supposed to make you safe, lab coat is supposed to give you enough time to run to shower if something really bad happens. if you’re looking for protection from everything you need something much more substantial
