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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.
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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
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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
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Laboratory splashes, splatters, or flying debris have resulted in injuries to the eyes and face. Contact with biological materials or agents by these means or hand-eye contact may also cause accidental inoculation, infection, and disease. Eye and face protection must be worn to protect against these hazards in accordance with the following requirements:
- As a minimum requirement, safety glasses with side shields must be worn at all times when in a Technical Area such as a laboratory. Additional eye and face protection may be necessary when handling chemicals or biological materials (e.g., goggles, face shield).
- Eye protection must be worn when conducting procedures that have the potential to create splashes of biological agents, biohazardous materials, or other hazardous materials to the face.
- Eye and face protection (e.g., goggles, mask, face shield, or other splatter guard) must be used when it is anticipated that splashes, sprays, splatters, or droplets of infectious or other hazardous materials may be generated and could contaminate the eyes, nose, or mouth (e.g., when RG2 microorganisms must be handled outside the biosafety cabinet or containment device). This eye and face protection must be disposed of with other contaminated laboratory waste or decontaminated before reuse.
- Persons who wear contact lenses in laboratories should also wear eye protection.
The Laboratory provides appropriate eye-protection devices for employees assigned to tasks that expose them to an eye-injury hazard. The supervisor/Work Lead is responsible for determining what eye-protection devices are suitable and ensuring that all employees and visitors use appropriate eye protection.
EH&S is available to assist supervisors in evaluating 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 prescription safety glasses.
It is the individual's responsibility to wear eye or face protection when required and whenever the work poses a reasonable probability of eye or face injury or exposure. The Chemical Safety Hygiene Plan is a good resource for learning about Eye and Face protection and other types of PPE. |
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