Laboratory
Chemical safety
Research and experiments can be a lot of fun, but they demand careful, organised working practices. Carelessness or a moment's lapse could have serious consequences and cause significant harm, both to you and the environment.
With proper preparation, the risk of an unforeseen incident is low. It is therefore important to carefully read over all the protocols and prepare yourself thoroughly before starting work. The first step is always to familiarise yourself with recognised procedures and guidelines on how to handle the chemicals involved. Chemicals are labelled with various information, e.g. the boiling point, flash point and vapour pressure. Other useful information is easy to find online, particularly information about how hazardous the chemical is. You need to check whether the chemical is corrosive, oxidising or sensitising. Pregnant women should be particularly cautious and look over the hazard information especially carefully, because many chemicals may be harmful to the unborn child.
If you intend to work with highly hazardous chemicals, such as carcinogenic chemicals or chemicals that could cause mutations or foetal damage, it is important to prepare the research lab carefully. Let your colleagues know what you are planning and then limit access to the room. All toxic chemicals must be handled in a purpose-built environment, e.g. in a fume hood.
Nobody may work with hazardous chemicals without the requisite training. Waste
Hazardous and/or toxic waste must never be poured down a sink. Chemical waste should be treated as hazardous waste. Familiarise yourself thoroughly with the rules for handling hazardous waste.
Gases of some kind are used in most research labs, so it is likely that you will encounter many different sizes of gas cylinder in the lab: small cylinders used in experiments and large cylinders used for larger equipment.
Not all gases are toxic or flammable, but they are stored at high pressure, so you must take care. It is best to store gas cylinders outside the research lab if possible, using pipelines to deliver the gas to where it will be used. Whether gas cylinders are kept inside or outside the lab, they must be stored securely so that they cannot fall over.
Liquids with a boiling point of -73°C or lower are called cryogenic liquids. These are chemicals such as liquid nitrogen (N2), helium (He) and argon (Ar), and also dry ice (CO2). These chemicals can cause cryogenic burns if they come into contact with skin. You must use appropriate gloves and safety goggles when working with these liquids.
When these chemicals escape into the atmosphere, they vaporise very rapidly and a small amount of liquid can produce large volumes of gas. If you are working in a small room or transporting the chemical in a lift or car, this can quickly lead to serious oxygen deficiency.
All work with cryogenic liquids must be carried out slowly and carefully to avoid harm.
The use of radioactive materials is subject to the approval and permission of the Icelandic Radiation Safety Authority. Ionising radiation from, for example, radioactive chemicals and X-rays, can have serious consequences for human health and the environment. There are strict standards regarding the storage and handling of these materials. People working with radioactive materials must attended a course and be competent to handle such materials.
Radioactive materials must be stored securely in order to minimise radiation hazards. This can be achieved by storing the radioactive material in a refrigerator or freezer, in the case of low radiation levels. Radioactive materials are categorised by the type of radiation they emit: alpha, beta or gamma. They are also sorted into four risk categories depending on how dangerous they are, where category 4 is the least dangerous. The SI unit used to measure radioactivity is Becquerel (Bq).
The simplest and best way is to store chemicals in the containers in which they were delivered. A huge number of chemicals are used in research labs at the University of Iceland. There are special chemical storage rooms in various buildings where these chemicals are kept secure. Inside labs, chemicals are stored on shelves or in special, ventilated chemical storage cabinets. You must not store flasks or other chemical containers on open shelves or near the edge of a workbench. In the event of an earthquake or if someone bumps into them, they could fall and smash.
All chemicals must be correctly labelled. The original containers will have the correct labels, but if you create a solution or dilution in a new container, make sure to label it properly. Write the name of the solution clearly and distinctly on the bottle and label it with hazard pictograms if it is corrosive or flammable.
When storing chemicals close together, consider what would happen if they mixed. Some chemicals are incompatible and must not be stored together because if mixed they would give off dangerous vapours or explode.
Never keep more of a chemical than you need on the workbench or in a fume hood – use the chemical storage cabinets. Always put chemicals back where you got them from and make sure that there are no drops or other chemical contamination on the outside of containers.