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Biolab > Student Behavior

Laboratory Safety & Rules

Lab instructors are required to educate themselves and their students about laboratory safety.

Updated: 08/09/2020

  1. No food or drink allowed.
  2. Coats, bags, purses, backpacks, etc. must be stored on the shelves provided on the side of the room. Do NOT keep them next to you at your workstation. Only your binder with syllabus, task sheets, pencil, colored pencils, and mini-stapler should be with you at the workstation. 
  3. Mobile electronic devices are NOT allowed in the lab (excluding the ISU lab computers and equipment). If a student has one on his/her person OR anywhere near their seat they will receive a zero on their quiz and/or task sheet. They must be placed in your bag or coat and stored on the shelves provided.
  4. Standard lab attire is required:
    • work shirt that covers the upper torso and arms
    • lower body clothing that covers the leg to the knee (e.g., pants, skirt, coveralls, lab coat) and fully protects exposed skin, and
    • shoes that have a closed toe AND heel (i.e. NO flip flops or sandals).
  5. Long hair must be restrained (i.e., braided, tied in a pony tail, etc.) for safety reasons.
  6. Random assigned seating is required during each lab.
  7. Before and after each lab, wipe down all student benches, computer keyboard and mouse, microscope knobs and eyepieces, and all other equipment that is touched during lab with the correct cleaning supplies.
  8. Instructors must also wipe down the instructor benches, computer keyboard and mouse, microscope knobs and eyepieces, projector remote, as well as any other equipment they use during lab the correct cleaning supplies.
  9. Participation in lab is required. If the lab instructor observes that a student is not actively participating in the completion of the task sheet, the student will receive a zero on the task sheet.
  10. Notify your instructor of unsafe conditions such as broken glassware or water on the floor.
  11. Never pour chemical reagents down the sink drain unless instructed to do so.
  1. Read the Safety Data Sheets for the chemicals being used in the laboratory. Print copies can be found in each teaching laboratory.
  2. Do not get chemicals on skin or clothing. If you do, wash them off and notify your instructor.
  3. All containers of chemicals, including water, MUST be labeled to prevent accidents and facilitate disposal.
  4. Never pour chemical reagents down the sink drain unless instructed to do so. Place used or waste chemicals in chemical waste containers and correctly label with the Chemical Waste Form.
  5. Gloves and goggles must be worn when working with specific chemicals or specimens that have been preserved in formalin. Broken glass, razor blades, syringes and needles are to be disposed of in the appropriate containers, i.e. broken glass boxes and sharps containers.
  6. DO NOT PUT ANYTHING SHARP IN THE WASTE BASKETS!
  7. Notify your instructor of unsafe conditions such as broken glassware, spilled chemicals, or water on the floor. Instructors will clean up the glassware or spill.
A Blood and body fluid kits

Where: drawers of the instructor benches in each teaching laboratory.
Include: biohazard bag, 2 masks, 1 pair of goggles, 2 pairs of disposable gloves, a bottle of bleach which will need to be diluted before use, 2 kwik-wipe towelettes, 2 paper towels and instructions for clean-up.

If a blood/body fluid accident occurs:
  1. Put on the plastic gloves from the kit.
  2. Put on the safety goggles and mask if there is any possibility of the fluids contacting your mucous membranes.
  3. For small spills, use the Kwik-wipe towelettes.
  4. For larger accidents use the concentrated bleach which must be diluted with water to the line indicated on the bottle and may be used to disinfect counters, floors or any contaminated area. This must be left for 20 minutes and then wiped up with paper towels--WEAR GLOVES!
  5. Put all contaminated materials in the biohazard bag. The bag will be taken to the stockroom IMMEDIATELY after the clean-up and will be placed on the contamination table with a sign which reads “HUMAN CONTAMINANTS”.
  6. All such accidents should then be reported using the Accident Reporting Form and filed with the Laboratory Materials Supervisor on your campus and the lab coordinator.
B First Aid Kits
  • Drawers of the instructor benches in each teaching laboratory.
  • In the Pocatello and Idaho Falls Stockrooms.
  • Biological Sciences Office -- above sink in 228.
C Spill tamer kit -- Drawers of the instructor benches in each teaching laboratory (LS 122, 261, 262, 263)
D Showers
  • At the end of each hallway (east and west)
  • Room 193 -- east wall next to the fume hood
  • There are no emergency showers on the second floor.
  • There are showers at the ends of both hall ways on the first floor.
E Fire Blankets
  • Room 192 -- the wall next to the office
  • Room 137--left side just inside door
  • Room 138--right side on east wall
  • Rooms 139, 151, 52, 153 --left side just inside door
  • Rooms 237, 243 -- inside left hand (west) door
  • Room 247 -- inside door
  • Rooms 250, 251 -- inside right hand (west) door
F Fire Extinguishers
  • Rooms 191 & 192 - on west wall
  • Room 137 -- On the wall just inside the door
  • Rooms 138, 139 -- left side, just inside the door
  • Room 146 (EM suite) -- right side, just inside the door
  • Room 151 -- left side, just inside the door(north wall)
  • Rooms 152, 153 -- right side, just inside the door
  • Room 193 -- combustible metals extinguisher behind the southwest door
  • Above each drinking fountain
  • Rooms 261, 263 -- front (east) wall
  • Room 272 -- north wall
  • Front office, south of main door
G Eye washes -- There are eye wash fountains in each lab.
H Fire alarms
  • Main hall just north of the elevator and stairwell
  • East hall between stairwell and room 140.
I Fire hose -- Above drinking fountains in the east and west halls.
J Wheelchair -- Room 193