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.
Never touch, taste or sniff a chemical if you don't know what it is. The odour does not tell you anything about how hazardous the chemical is. Many lethal chemicals have no odour, such as carbon monoxide (CO). All work with hazardous and harmful chemicals must be done in a fume hood. Remember to close all containers properly after use. Keep your work area clean and tidy. In this way you can always see everything you are working with.
If you are working with a sample or unknown chemical, always treat it as "the most dangerous chemical in the world" until you have learned its properties. Nobody is permitted to work with lethal chemicals without the appropriate training.
All containers should be properly closed as you move them. Do not leave bags, clothes or anything else in walkways to prevent anyone from tripping over them and falling. Watch out for wet patches on the floor. Make sure that your entire work area is clean, particularly around balances, in fume hoods and where chemicals are stored.
All bottles and containers should be clean and the outside free of dribbles, drops or residue. Clean up after yourself before putting the chemical away so that the next user is not exposed. When tidying up chemicals, never pour them back into the containers! If a chemical has spilled, glass broken or something similar, you should clean it up immediately in accordance with the relevant procedures. Workbenches, floors and fume hoods must be clean at the end of the working day.
Work with flammable chemicals such as solvents should be done in fume hoods. These chemicals may never be heated with gas flames, only in a water bath. When pipetting, always use a rubber bulb or other aid. Never suck up liquid or samples with your mouth. It is strictly forbidden to take chemicals out of the lab for your own use. Doing this will get you reprimanded or fired. Nobody is permitted to work alone in a lab at the University of Iceland.
Gases of some kind are used in most research labs, so it is likely that you will see 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.
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.
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).
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.