1. Health and Safety in the School of Biology
Donna Pierz-Fennell
School of Biology Manager
Health and Safety Officer Purdie 352, x3626

2. Safety and the Lab Science is a hands-on discipline
You’ll be doing many activities in
the lab that potentially require the
use of hazardous chemicals and
(expensive!) lab equipment
Safety for you, and for others
sharing the lab space, is the
School’s number one priority

3. School of Biology Health and Safety Manual
School of Biology has an online H&S manual on our website Find it (and bookmark it!) from the Biology home page, linked under ‘Staff Resources’ to the Health and Safety resource section:

4. Safety in the School of Biology
At 51+ pages, the H&S manual
is not environmentally sensible to
print out a copy for each person...
Contains information on:
School H&S structure
General Lab safety
Safety regulations and procedures
Security after hours and overnight

5. Responsibilities of Staff and Students in the Lab
Supervisors have a duty to ensure the day-to-day Health and Safety of staff, postgraduate and undergraduate students working in their lab.
In order to do this, all Staff and
Students need to advise supervisors,
lecturers, demonstrators or technicians
in the lab about all
accidents, dangerous incidents or near misses.

6. Safety First: Your Responsibilities in the Lab
Good lab practice is to be responsible
at ALL times. No fooling around or practical jokes
—these can go wrong and get someone hurt.
You’ll have chemicals on your hands, so be aware of how you handle items like phones, tablets, lip balm and telephones. Food and drink are absolutely not allowed in the lab.
EVERYONE is responsible
for keeping the lab a safe place to work!

7. Do you recognise an unsafe situation when you see one?

8. Safety in the lab means always being prepared for the unexpected…

9. A final thought... If you don’t know, ask. Please ask. Ask anyone.
Just don’t ignore the question
and hope it goes away.
Sometimes it does, but not in
the way you expected...