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- Establish and follow safe chemical storage procedures for your laboratory
- While working outside normal hours ensure that information about your presence in the laboratory is available to another person
- Avoid all skin contact with toxic and corrosive chemicals through minimum usage and use of personal protective equipments
- Ensure good housekeeping, adequate spacing between experimental setups
- While handling flammables ensure that no ignition sources are available in the vicinity; in case highly flammable substances are in use consider use of sensors to detect leakages if reasonable amount of inventories are available
- Ensure all chemical containers are labelled (along with a date of purchase) according to relevant industry guidelines
- Use appropriate signage to indicate highly hazardous chemicals and wastes
- Use signage to demarcate work areas subject to non-chemical hazards such as noise, temperature, radioactivity, microwave exposure, etc.
- Document any known hazardous properties of new chemicals, nanomaterials, toxins, etc
- While using a chemical ensure that information on other chemicals which are incompatible with the former
- Segregate and avoid simultaneous use of all incompatible chemicals
- Maintain adequate number and type of personal protection equipment and first-aid kit
- Maintain adequate type of equipment and devices to manage accidental spills and releases of hazardous chemicals
- Investigate all ‘abnormal occurrences’ that lead to (or potentially may have led to) impact on a laboratory personnel / external environment
- Document lessons from abnormal occurrences and publicize them to prevent recurrence
- Ensure that there is an emergency exit in the laboratory and always keep it clear
- Take special precautions to secure all high pressure gas storage cylinders against accidental slippage and fall