DCHAS-L Discussion List Archive
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:25:54 -0400
Reply-To: ILPI <info**At_Symbol_Here**ILPI.COM>
Sender: DCHAS-L Discussion List <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU>
From: ILPI <info**At_Symbol_Here**ILPI.COM>
Subject: Re: Interesting "Proper Lab Clothing"
In-Reply-To: <FCA5EF47F9BC694CBB4C58FEA042196348860BFDF4**At_Symbol_Here**SDSU-MBX.jacks.local>
I'd have to rule that one
technically wrong. Clothing is easily removed in an emergency.
I've responded to several accidents that required removal of
affected clothing. The best way of which, BTW, is scissors.
For example, in one accident the victim had glass sticking out of
her arm and removing the shirt normally would have caused more damage.
Another case involved an acid splash, and taking an acid-soaked
shirt over someone's head and face is not a good
idea.
Now, it's true that in a genchem lab one
would be unlikely to splash concentrated HF on his legs. But a
penetrating injury is easily imagined, unfortunately. Cutting off
someone's pants is fairly easy, removing duc_ tape (if applied to skin,
particularly that of hirsute individuals) in a hurry would be fairly
difficult and likely to exacerbate or even cause additional
injury.
An absurd parallel to draw is - what if
the student wore concrete shoes to lab? That would also not be
technically acceptable in my book because it would hinder
egress/recovery in an emergency. Hmm, guess that would have to be
marine biology lab!
Rob Toreki
On Sep
17, 2009, at 3:21 PM, Yarrow, Gary wrote:
We have a strict policy about proper lab clothing, i.e.,
non-perforated shoes, leg coverings, etc=85.the
basics.
However, yesterday we had a new one! One of the people
in my office was doing general chemistry lab walkthrough, and found a
fellow who duck (duct if you prefer, although technically it=92s duck)
taped his entire legs to not let any skin be showing. Yes, his
entire legs.
He said that he forget about the rules and figured well,
technically it would follow the rules. Never had seen that one
before. And yes, there is a picture, fuzzy (cell phone), but I
really would hate to be him when he took that tape off. Wonder how
much hair was removed at the same time?
Gary
Dr. Gary L. Yarrow,
Director
Environmental Health &
Safety
Shepard Hall 059; Bldg
2202
South Dakota State
University
Brookings, SD
5700-7-0896
605-688-6332
