That laboratory construction Malaysia will be a waste of time and money if you do not prioritize safety of your first lab when setting it up with furniture and equipment. Safety is paramount when it comes to working in labs because you may mostly deal with dangerous materials or chemicals.
If you do not heed safety, you and your work buddies can be injured, or worse, die from an accident. Your workplace may also be devastated by something like a chemical explosion. The furthest you can expect is a governmental organization telling you to cease operations and punish you for not employing safety measures.
So what do you do to avoid accidents?
Keep Your Lab Clean
Always clean your lab after experimenting and on a weekly basis. You cannot afford to have contaminants living on any surface of your lab as they can affect your materials, your lab’s hygiene and safety. Have cleaning supplies ready so you can jump to the job by the end of the day.
Never have food and drink inside your lab at all. Tell your co-workers to eat and drink outside the lab’s premises instead. When disposing of hazardous materials, do so accordingly. Know the proper instructions of disposal so they do not leak dangers to your workplace.
Organize your equipment, chemicals and so on too. This is not only making your lab look tidier, it also allows easy access among your workmates and yourself since all of you know where certain equipment are kept, and reach out without having to search for them.
Safety Equipment
No lab is safe until you include safety equipment in your laboratory. Gas masks, lab coats, safety goggles, gloves, emergency showers and eyewashes are among the examples that you must invest into after building your first lab. Make sure that the inventory is sufficient for every worker in the lab.
Also, know the risk levels of your experiments. If you are not going to deal with highly radioactive material, for instance, you won’t need a closet full of full-body hazmat suits. Just one or two is enough should you actually have to perform one with such toys anyway. Or four at best.
Knowing your lab’s risk level enables you to plan ahead on listing and buying the minimum safety gadgets of your lab without spending too much of your budget.
Also, put warning signs as bright as a lamp. People are attracted to bright colors like moths to a lightbulb, so use recognizable and visible colors like yellow for the background of a corrosion warning label. You must also brief your colleagues on safety measures of your experiments, and put a poster of warnings up the wall if you have to.
First Aid Kit and Fires
Always equip your lab with first aid kits so you can treat wounds or stabilize your workmates to save them before taking them to a clinic or hospital. The first aid kits must be visible to everybody, otherwise store it in a cabinet with a glass you can see through, and label the furniture accordingly.
Fire extinguishers, hoses, towels and the like must also be included inside your lab to put out fires as soon as you can before the flames grow worse. Brief your colleagues about fire safety protocols so they know what to do when a flammable material catches a flame by accident.