• Question: Can you explain what safety precautions you have to take before you start your job?

    Asked by NobeliumHoliumMolybdenum to Sudhin, Sergio, Katie, Frances, Diarmuid, Aoife on 12 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Aoife Campbell

      Aoife Campbell answered on 12 Nov 2019:

      I had to get a health screening done at the doctors but this wasn’t very complex, just basic things like breathing rate and bloods etc to make sure I was healthy before starting. I dont work with many harmful chemicals so it’s pretty safe

    • Photo: Katie Fala

      Katie Fala answered on 12 Nov 2019:

      Great question! People who work in labs do have higher than average exposures to hazards so safety precautions are very important.

      I have to do a risk assessment before a new experiment – this means I have to know all the hazards such as chemicals, sharp glass/blades, bunsen etc, then I need to assess how likely it is that I could be injured by each of these and how bad the injury could be. Then I have to make a plan to control the hazard – for example, if I need to work with a strong chemical like chloroform, I need to use it only in the fume hood, only small quantities and I must wear a ventilator mask and two pairs of gloves!

      Some of my work involves pathogens like Listeria monocytogenes and I need to work with these in a special containment lab. To gain entry to this lab I had to get certain vaccinations for things like Hep A/B, Polio and Tetanus.

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