Many laboratories contain significant risks, and the prevention of laboratory accidents requires great care and constant vigilance. Examples of risk factors include high voltages, high and low pressures and temperatures, corrosive and toxic chemicals and chemical vapours, radiation, fire, explosions, and biohazards including infective organisms and their toxins.
Measures to protect against laboratory accidents include safety training and enforcement of laboratory safety policies, safety review of experimental designs, the use of personal protective equipment, and the use of the buddy system for particularly risky operations.
In many countries, laboratory work is subject by health and safety legislation. In some cases, laboratory activities can also present environmental health risks, for example, the accidental or deliberate discharge of toxic or infective material from the laboratory into the environment.
Hazardous chemicals present physical and/or health threats to workers in clinical, industrial, and academic laboratories. Laboratory chemicals include cancer-causing agents (carcinogens), toxins (e.g., those affecting the liver, kidney, and nervous system), irritants, corrosives, sensitizers, as well as agents that act on the blood system or damage the lungs, skin, eyes, or mucous membranes.
Biosafety level
Many laboratory workers encounter daily exposure to biological hazards. These hazards are present in various sources throughout the laboratory such as blood and body fluids, culture specimens, body tissue and cadavers, and laboratory animals, as well as other workers.
These are federally regulated biological agents (e.g., viruses, bacteria, fungi, and prions) and toxins that have the potential to pose a severe threat to public health and safety, to animal or plant health, or to animal or plant products.
Anthrax - Anthrax is an acute infectious disease caused by a spore-forming bacterium called Bacillus anthracis.
Avian Flu - Avian influenza is caused by Influenza A viruses.
