Common laboratory safety problems and countermeasures
Laboratory staff because often come into contact with flammable and explosive and toxic and harmful substances, so they have to face the danger is often more than ordinary production work, in recent years, laboratory safety accidents have occurred, once it will cause no small casualties. Here is a look at common laboratory safety problems and countermeasures:
1. Explosive incineration class
This kind of danger is common in chemical laboratories, mainly due to chemical reactions leading to direct explosions, but also due to gas leakage, overflow by external forces or temperature point explosion or fire.
For example, flammable and explosive gases are often used in chemical laboratories, and many non-professional laboratory design units will store flammable and explosive gas cylinders in the test area and store them with gas cylinder cabinets, which they think can achieve explosion-proof effects. But the explosion is the energy gathered to a certain extent and broke the external endurance limit of the instant release behavior, once the explosion, the first impact must be the experiment area, the most hurt must be the laboratory on-site staff. Therefore, we do not recommend that flammable and explosive gases be placed in the experimental area, and explosion-proof, flameproof, and blowout treatment be carried out in the area where flammable and explosive gases are stored, so as to reduce the threat of explosion and fire to laboratory staff.
2. Corrosion
This kind of hazard will cause corrosion to human skin, eyes, respiratory tract, etc., and seriously threaten the health of workers.
Our common acids and bases will cause harm to the human body because the operation process is not careful enough or insufficient protection, such as reagent splashing into the eyes or skin because there is no protective equipment, there is no emergency shower device in the laboratory area or the shower device is too far away from the test area, resulting in missing the golden treatment time; Or because the emergency flushing water pressure is too high, and the injury of the injured person is extremely fragile, resulting in secondary injuries.
3. Burns
Laboratories often have some high temperature chemical reactions and high temperature heating experiments, which will pose a threat to personal safety. For example: for heating to increase the reaction rate, for high temperature incineration, high temperature oil bath, may cause high temperature burns and scalds for various reasons.
4. Frostbite
Our laboratory will also use the link of low temperature freezing, such as liquid nitrogen temperature -196℃, in the operation of liquid nitrogen must wear cold gloves, otherwise it is very easy to frostbite. In addition, there are some special refrigerants, etc., which may cause frostbite to the skin because of little attention during operation.
5. Electric shock class
The laboratory has a large number of electrical equipment, at the same time, there will be a lot of equipment itself is metal shell, and many test areas are themselves wet closed environment, so there are often electric shock accidents. The causes of electric shock are generally wire damage, leakage protection failure, ground line breakage, no grounding protection, and the selection voltage is not safe voltage.
The safe voltage that the human body can withstand is 36 volts and the safe current is 10 ma. When the resistance of the human body is certain, the higher the voltage the human body contacts, the greater the current through the human body, and the more serious the damage to the human body. Safety current is also known as the safe flow or allowed continuous current, the human safety current is the safe value of the current through the human body. Generally, when the current of 1mA passes through, it is felt, and it is difficult for the human body to get rid of more than 25mA, and 50mA is life-threatening.
6. Poisons
There are many toxic and harmful drugs in the laboratory, and poisoning incidents often occur, which are basically caused by ingestion and contact. For example, the laboratory staff will store the food in the pharmaceutical reagent refrigerator, put the food in the experimental equipment to heat, and bring the water cup into the matter according to the area; There is also contact poisoning, which is basically caused by irregular operation, insufficient protection awareness, and inadequate protective equipment.
7. Infections
Laboratory workers are often in close contact with viruses or bacteria, and there is a risk of infection. Infection refers to the local tissue and systemic inflammatory response caused by the invasion of bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites and other pathogens into the human body. Infection risks are usually found in biological laboratories or medical laboratories.
The common infection routes are skin contact, droplet transmission, bodily fluid transmission, blood transmission, air transmission and so on. Of course, different viruses or bacteria will have corresponding survival conditions, once the corresponding survival conditions or transmission routes can not be met, then all viruses are not so terrible.
If the laboratory operator can be infected in the case of standardized operation and protection, it can only be said that the laboratory environment is not qualified. The laboratory environment is qualified or not mainly depends on the following points: whether it meets the experimental requirements, whether it can be effectively sterilized, whether it can be effectively isolated, and whether the indoor air temperature and humidity and dust particles can reach the standard.
8. Chronic diseases
There have been analyses abroad that the average life expectancy of laboratory work is 10 years less than that of ordinary environmental workers, which is largely due to various toxic and harmful gases, various acousto-optic electromagnetic and radiation pollution.
Chronic disease hazards often can not be seen in a short time, causing such safety hazards is actually the most important reason is buried in the laboratory design, followed by operation and protection. Therefore, in the design, attention should be paid to ensuring the leakage rate of the test area, the number of air changes, radiation protection and other factors. In the case of avoiding known risks, it is necessary to maximize the protection requirements, after all, science itself is a process of falsification.
Coping measures
We are used to such propaganda as "responsibility is heavier than Mount Tai, safety is more important in prevention", "experimental safety should be careful, if not careful, disaster for life", and we are used to ignoring it. It seems like yesterday that three students were killed in a laboratory explosion at Beijing Jiaotong University. Although we have to invest a lot of money and energy in safety issues, everything is worth it from the perspective of the safety of laboratory workers. It is time for us to strengthen the investigation of security risks in each link in the laboratory construction process, and eliminate security problems in the bud. At the same time, strengthen the safety training and education of laboratory personnel, establish and standardize an effective safety mechanism, so as to ensure the safety of the laboratory.
Strengthen safety training and education to raise safety awareness
Too many laboratory safety accidents are caused by human improper operation, safety training and education is the top priority to eliminate laboratory safety accidents. We should not only carry out safety knowledge education, but also carry out safety training related to professional learning. Enable laboratory operators to master the basic safety knowledge and safety self-rescue skills. If conditions are available, safety education materials can be written according to the specific conditions of the laboratory, a variety of lectures, safety knowledge competitions, watching videos and classroom teaching, and other forms of safety education can be widely carried out to form a school-wide safety atmosphere.
Attach importance to the construction of laboratory hardware and eliminate security hazards from the source
Whether it is explosion, fire, electric shock or poisoning and other injuries, these hidden dangers should be taken into account from the design and construction stage of the laboratory. The laboratory should choose a professional laboratory design and construction unit at the early stage, and it needs to be carefully arranged to form a close and reasonable connection between the functions. Special attention should be paid to regulating laboratory safety warning devices and fire and extinguishing equipment, regulating the construction of laboratory water, electricity, gas, ventilation and other systems, regulating the classification and storage of various reagents or flammable and explosive items, and the discharge and treatment of various wastes or toxic substances, so as to eliminate laboratory safety hazards in the germination.
Formulate emergency plans for laboratory safety accidents to prevent them before they happen
Although we prevent the occurrence of safety accidents from all aspects, it is impossible to avoid them all. Therefore, we should formulate scientific and feasible emergency plans in advance, especially in the face of very common fire, poisoning and other safety accidents, we should be able to treat calmly. For example, in case of fire, we can carry out regular drills on the use of fire extinguishers and fire hydrants. Learn how to escape and save yourself in the event of an accident, learn and practice mouth-to-mouth breathing and cardiac chest compressions. These first aid knowledge can effectively respond to emergencies. Teachers and students should carefully learn relevant theoretical knowledge and skills to operate, meet an emergency, can not panic, calm response.
Laboratory security is far more than personnel safety so simple, may also involve equipment safety, sample safety and information security, but no matter what kind of security accidents can not be ignored, we must face up to establish a mechanism, strengthen education, continuous efforts, for our laboratory to create a safe and reliable working environment.
