PROTECTIVE CLOTHING AND EQUIPMENT

Laboratory Clothing

Laboratory clothing is designed to protect one's personal clothing.  The purpose of this clothing is to keep street clothing, forearms, hair, or other exposed surfaces free of contamination.  It is important to realize that wearing these items, especially lab coats, to the cafeteria, libraries, meetings, or to other buildings provides a mechanism for spreading contamination to others as well as to oneself.   The use of laboratory clothing must be restricted to the laboratory and not worn outside the laboratory area.

A second group of protective practices includes the use of appropriate gloves, face protectors, and laboratory clothing.

Criteria for Issue

To protect their health and safety, protective clothing will be issued to employees who work with hazardous material.

The Laboratory requires suitable equipment to protect employees from hazards in the workplace as prescribed in 29 CFR 1910.132. The Environment, Health and Safety (EH&S) Division advises on the protective equipment required for a task, but the supervisor of the operation must obtain this equipment and see that it is used.

Protective clothing is not a substitute for adequate engineering controls.

EH&S is available for consultation as needed. Page E-4 of the Chemical Hygiene and Safety Plan, PUB-5341, gives additional guidance for body, foot, eye, respiratory, and hand protection. Appendix 6 of PUB-5341 provides glove-selection guides.

Authority

Supervisors authorize protective clothing for their employees. Protective clothing is purchased from the Central Storeroom (Bldg 78), with the approval of a person authorized to sign for the account, as shown in the Account Authorization Book.

Radioisotope Areas

Protective clothing must be monitored for radioactive contamination before being sent to the laundry.

Foot Protection

The Laboratory encourages the wearing of safety shoes by making them available to all employees at cost, delivered from a manufacturer's shoemobile. For certain types of work, wearing safety shoes is required by Laboratory policy or by federal regulations (29 CFR 1910.136) as specified in American National Safety Standard Z41.1. Examples are work that exposes employees to foot injuries from hot, corrosive, or poisonous substances; work in shops, in equipment handling, or in construction jobs where there is a danger of falling objects; or work in abnormally wet locations.

Hand Protection

The Laboratory provides proper hand protection to employees exposed to known hand hazards such as those from absorption of harmful substances, severe cuts, lacerations or abrasions, chemical burns, and extreme temperatures. Supervisors must obtain suitable hand protection and ensure that it is used. The Central Storeroom in Building 78 stocks a variety of protective hand protection. Individual departments are responsible for maintaining a supply of adequate hand protection.

Assistance in selecting the proper hand protection may be obtained by consulting an Industrial Hygienist, ext. 6218.

Gloves

Gloves function to prevent the worker's hands, fingers, and nails from being contaminated.  This helps to reduce the hazards associated with ingestion (hand-to-mouth transfer) or the penetration of material through broken or unbroken skin.  Although there are relatively few organisms that can penetrate unbroken skin, many experiments also involve chemicals and radionuclides, therefore, using gloves should be regarded as a minimum requirement.

Face and Eye Protection

Face and eye exposure have resulted in laboratory associated illness, therefore, eye and face protection must be worn whenever there is a risk of exposure to potentially hazardous materials. The supervisor of an operation is responsible for determining when eye protection is needed and what eye-protection devices are suitable, and is responsible for ensuring that all employees and visitors use them when in active eye-hazard areas. EH&S is available to assist supervisors in defining eye-hazard operations and in selecting appropriate eye protection. The Health Services Group optometrist is available for consultation regarding occupational eye protection. Personnel requiring prescription safety glasses should schedule an examination with the optometrist, who issues all safety glasses and screens individuals for use of laser safety glasses.

All persons must wear safety glasses whenever they run a reasonable probability of eye exposure to human source material from the work being performed. Staff must use appropriate eye or face protection when exposed to such hazards. Eye protection with side shields must be used when there is a hazard from flying objects.  Some work areas (e.g., biological/biomedical laboratories and workshops) are designated as "Eye-Hazard Areas." Signs must be posted in these areas that state the eye-protection requirement (e.g., "Eye Protection Must be Worn in This Area").

The Laboratory provides appropriate eye-protection devices for employees assigned to tasks that expose them to an eye-injury hazard.

It is the individual's responsibility to wear eye protection devices at all times in eye-hazard areas and whenever his/her work poses a reasonable probability of eye injury.