Laboratory Techniques and their Application (LOA)

Health and safety in science organizations



In science departments, the health and safety play one of the most
important role due to as they regularly use a wide range of irritant,
radioactive and corrosive chemicals. Neglecting health and safety protocols
has end up causing a lot of injuries. To prevent these risky injuries and
incidents, the government has appointed health and safety officers that
makes sure that the specific place is safe, and well-being for the workers and
surroundings. In Uk, these appointed health and safety officers are also
known as health and safety executive (HSE). These officers' accesses the
specific workplace where they identify hazards and give safety guidance to
the workers on how to prevent injuries and protect the surroundings.

These HSE officers must follow some legislations such as (COSHH, HSWA,
COMAH, HSE, DESAR, CLEAPSS and RIDDOR). These regulations are enforced
by both local authorities and HSE.

 COSHH:

This legislation stands for control of substances that are hazardous for
health. This regulation is specially designed for the safety of workers from
any injury caused while handling hazardous substances, fumes and gases
etc.

 HSWA

This regulation stands for Health and safety at work act 1974, which covers
health and safety related to the job in the Uk.

 COMAH

This legislation stands for control of major accidents hazards. It is one of the
Uk laws that is specially designed to prevent major accidents which includes
hazardous chemicals that can harm surroundings and environment.

 HSE

This legislation stands for health and safety executive.

,  DESAR

This legislation stands for Dangerous substance and explosive atmospheres
regulations, which aims to control the risk of explosions, metal corrosion of
metal and fire at the workplace.

 CLEAPSS

This legislation stands for consortium of local education authorities for
provision of science services, which gives different ideas and resources and
guidance to the technicians and science teachers which helps them to
ensure safety in the classroom by doing practical activities.

 RIDDOR

This legislation stands for reporting of injuries, diseases and dangerous
occurrence regulations. It allows the workers and people to report of specific
injuries, incidents, death related to the work and diseases.



Biological laboratories https://www.kcl.ac.uk/

According to kings' college london, the biological laboratories are mainly
designed for conducting biological activities, performing different
experiments and analysing different samples. These laboratories are very
important for observing natural materials like samples of different chemicals
and living organisms and for creating new chemical components. These
laboratories have to face many different hazards that can occur while doing
the experiment, these hazards include,

 One of the risky hazards that can occur while doing the practical in the
laboratory is that all the windows around the lab should not be closed.
The risk from this is that in the case of fire or another emergency
which is an act of HSWA, DESAR and COMAH, according to the law
(RIDDOR) in the case of these incidents it should be reported as quick
as can, so some actions are taken. To control these risks, there should
be a smoke ventilation system, so to prevent smoke the windows
should be opened.
 One other hazard is that there is not any guidance sign which tell the
workers which containment level of the laboratory is. The risk from this
is that the workers can enter highly contaminated level accidently
without wearing proper protective equipment needed to enter that lab
due to no guidance of each containment level, which can result, the