Laboratory Safety

By: Shaun Eiler, Scott Frazier, Nick Hoffman,

Justin Oliver, and Don Wethington

Background of Lab Safety

Knowledge of Laboratory safety is important because it can ensure students the confidence that they are working in a safe environment.  Machines and tools can be intimidating for some students, they may feel that they are going to get seriously hurt when operating such equipment.  Once students learn about lab rules, guidelines, equipment safety, and other lab procedures, students can use tools and machines in a safe manner. 

As future technology education teachers, our group believes that it is extremely important to spread the word of lab safety.  When we say "lab" safety, we don't just mean saws, drills, and sharp tools, we mean any materials that are found in any kind of lab.  There are many types of labs that can be found in public schools.  These labs may include manufacturing, construction, transportation, photography, and communications.  Each lab has its own equipment that is used to create products.  For example, in a construction lab there are a lot of building that goes on.  This means that there is probably going to be saws, nail guns, and drills in the lab.  Students are going to have to understand how to operate each of these tools in a safe manner.  In a photography lab, there may not be any dangerous machines, but there are plenty of harmful chemicals.  Students should know how to react in the emergency that they or someone else would ingest a harmful substance.   

Our Lab Safety Presentation

Our group felt that safety was an important enough issue to address in this video project.  Some of the safety issues that we included in our presentation were; the table saw, radial arm saw, loose clothing in the drill press, clutter on the floor, and harmful chemicals.  We also showed fire extinguishers, first aid cabinets, and eye wash stations.  We are hoping that students can use our video as an example.  We hope that students can watch our video and get a better understanding of what they can do to ensure that they will be safe.  The following video has been produced so that future students may be educated on the correct safety procedures for a technology lab environment. 

 Author: Shaun Eiler

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