Merriam-Webster.com sez:

wet lab:  a laboratory equipped with appropriate plumbing, ventilation, and equipment to allow for hands-on scientific research and experimentation.

dry lab:  a laboratory for making computer simulations or for data analysis especially by computers (as in bioinformatics).

I think that definition could be used for lab safety purposes to embrace labs with biological hazards or physical hazards, like lasers, engineering labs, x-ray generating equipment, etc. that don't necessarily involve running water, perhaps by changing "appropriate plumbing, ventilation, and equipment" to "approriate plumbing, ventilation AND/OR equipment."   Another approach might be to get away from the terms wet vs. dry altogether and just carve out an exemption for computer-only labs from the definition of a lab used in lab safety-related policies.

Donald Abramowitz, CIH

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I'm working with the Cornell Undergraduate Research Board to develop lab safety training for undergrads working in research labs here. A question that arose in this context is:

One other issue I noticed is that some students don't seem to know what a "wet lab" is. This may not be as much of a problem for our targeted group of experienced researchers, but just in case, do you have any suggestions on the best way to describe that to students?

I wonder if anyone in DCHAS land has developed a short answer to that question. "Wet lab" doesn't mean much to me as a lab safety professional, but I know that it's an important concept in the lab planning and design world. Is a sink enough to define a "wet lab"? Is a hood necessary?

Thanks for any help with this.

- Ralph


Ralph Stuart CIH
Chemical Hygiene Officer
Department of Environmental Health and Safety
Cornell University

rstuart**At_Symbol_Here**cornell.edu