Health and safety in the laboratory and field

Health, safety and risk assessment are of paramount importance both in the laboratory and the field. This free course, Health and safety in the laboratory and field, will help make you more aware of the hazards and risks involved wherever you undertake your research, as well as giving you an overview of the legal requirements attached to this work. The course discusses issues involved in the handling of chemical and biological agents, basic safety procedures and common field-work hazards.

• Introduction
• Learning outcomes
• 1 Overview
• 1 Overview
• 1 History of health and safety
• 2 Legal requirements of health and safety in the UK
• 3 Office safety
• 4 First aid and emergency procedures
• 4.1 First aid
• 4.2 Why do I need to know about first aid?
• 5 General laboratory health and safety
• 5.1 Basic do's and don'ts and lone working
• 5.2 Cryogenic liquids and ionising radiation safety
• 6 Chemical health and safety
• 6.1 Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations
• 6.2 Chemical Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) Regulation
• 7 Hazards, risk and the process of risk assessment
• 7.1 Health problems associated with using chemicals
• 7.2 Information sources
• 7.3 Disposal requirements
• 7.4 Emergency procedures
• 7.5 Control measures
• 7.6 Personal protective equipment
• 7.7 Physical hazards
• 8 Biological health and safety
• 8.1 Syringes and sharps
• 8.2 Working with bio-hazardous material (human material, microbiological agents, plant pathogens)
• 8.3 Genetically modified material
• 9 Field-work health and safety, UK and abroad
• 9.1 Field-work risk assessment
• 9.2 Other hazards
• 9.3 Health
• 10 Risk assessment exercise
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgements