Health and Safety in College and Hospital Microbiology Laboratories

This article discusses the potential risks and hazards in college and hospital microbiology laboratories, safety laws, and management of risks and hazards. It also highlights the benefits of implementing health and safety procedures in these laboratories. The article emphasizes the importance of proper training, standard operating procedures, and the use of personal protective equipment to prevent chemical, biological, physical, and electrical hazards. It also discusses the laws that need to be implemented, such as the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH), Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH), and the CLP Regulation. The article concludes by highlighting the benefits of maintaining health and safety in the workplace for both employees and employers.

Btec Science
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Introduction:
Health and safety in both college laboratory and hospital microbiology laboratory is
becoming increasingly important subject. Establishment of the dedicated health and safety
department and training to employees and students are the important prerequisite for the
provision of safe environment in the respective laboratories. Accreditation of the laboratories
from the respective agencies proved to be beneficial in establishing and maintaining
standardised laboratories. Laboratories are the places for research, teaching and learning
activities are usually carried out and health and safety issues can arise due to inappropriate
circumstances and behaviours (Leigh, 2016).
Discussion:
Potential risks and hazards:
Hazards in the college laboratory broadly categorised in chemical, biological, physical and
electrical hazards. Chemical use in the laboratories in unavoidable and use of chemicals are
prone to harm or injury, if these are misused or mishandled. Chemicals which can be
hazardous include azos, peroxides, and peroxidizables, explosives, explosive boiling,
pyrophorics, incompatible chemical like hydrogen cyanide with bases, water reactives like
lithium, sodium, and potassium. All the students and staff members are required to be trained
for proper use of chemicals. Chemical hygiene plan including standard operating procedure
need to be implemented to control chemical hazards. Physical hazards include electrical
safety hazards, routine housekeeping aspects, using sharps and ergonomic hazards related to
humanly material and equipment use (Kuespert, 2016). Physical hazards can be effectively
controlled by giving training to students for safe handling of the equipments and proper
storage of the material. Microbes and viral vectors are the potential biological hazards in the
laboratory. Cut due to glasswares and spillage of blood on the floor and working platform
lead to microbial growth are also potential biological hazards. Electrical power outlets in the
wet locations and improper use of flexible extension cords are potential electrical hazards.
Use of plastic protective tubes and proper check of electrical connections on the regular basis
are useful in protection from the electrical hazards (Hill & Finster, 2016).
Chemical hazards in the microbiology laboratory comprises of toxins and corrosives like
disinfectants. Chemical hazards comprise of both organic and inorganic chemical. Proper
ventilation and chemical segregation are the effective ways to prevent chemical hazards.
Protective clothing and good housekeeping proved helpful in preventing chemical hazards.
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Fire, shock, malfunctioning electric equipment and unsafe use of extension cords are the
potential electrical hazards. Round-fault circuit interrupters need to be used and flexible
extension cords need to be used. Electrical pendants are useful in keeping cords out of the
way. Microbes like bacteria and viruses, blood, tissue, body fluids and genetically modified
agents are the potential biological hazards (Coelho & García, 2015).
Proper storage and protection are useful in protecting biological hazards. Use of proper
clothing and storing biological agents in the right areas are helpful lessening risk associated
with biological hazards. Suitable housekeeping and disinfection of work surfaces are useful
in minimizing biological risks. Physical hazards include noise, moving machinery accidents,
heating device and slipping are the potential physical hazards. Training to employees and
good housekeeping are useful in preventing physical hazards. Sitting in the stubborn position
for longer duration like sitting in biosafety cabinet and checking slides on microscope is one
of the potential hazards in the microbiology laboratory. Lack of biological safety cabinets
(BSC’s) is one of the major risk factors associated with the microbiology laboratory.
Inadequate biological waste management is one of the significant risk factors for the
microbiology laboratory (Wurtz et al., 2016; Salerno & Gaudioso, 2015).
Safety Laws:
Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) law is useful in controlling substances
which are hazardous in the laboratory. This law needs to be implanted when there is use of
hazardous substances. This law is applicable in the work platform and lab in charge is
responsible for the implementation of the law. Lab incharge need to prepare standard
operating procedure (SOP) for the use of hazardous chemical and accountability for the use
of hazardous chemical need to be maintained. Lab incharge need to prepare safety report and
it need to be audited through head of the department. Implementation of the safety practices
for use of hazardous substances need to be audited every month (Lee et al., 2011).
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) law is useful protecting from harm and hazardous by
using PPEs like safety helmets, gloves, eye protection, high-visibility clothing, safety
footwear and safety harnesses. PPEs are useful in protecting lungs, head and feet, eyes, skin
and body. PPEs are useful in both college lab and in the hospital microbiology lab. In both
the labs, gloves and eye protection are useful. In college lab, safety footwear is useful. Gloves
need to be used while handling corrosive chemicals, body fluids and infective organisms.
Head of the health and safety unit in both college and hospital should implement this law
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(Scungio & Gile, 2014). Head of the respective departments need to monitor all the
procedures and processes for the implementation of PPE law. Lab in charges should be
responsible for ensuring availability of necessary PPEs and optimum use of these PPEs. With
the help of lab incharge, head of the department need to prepare PPEs utilization report and
submit to head of health and safety unit in both college and hospital. Head of health and
safety unit need to carry out audit for the proper storage and utilization of PPEs. This audit
needs to be carried out every three months (Dickson, 2012).
Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) deals with precautions need to be taken to
control and prevent major accidents. Policies and procedures need to be prepared and
implemented to control and prevent major accidents. This law is applicable to the college
laboratory in which there is frequent use of explosive and flammable chemicals. This law is
applicable while using these explosive and flammable chemicals. Head of the health and
safety unit need to implement this law by giving training for utilization of explosive and
flammable chemicals. Head of the department need to monitor and lab incharge need to use
safely these chemicals. Head of the department need to prepare report and submit to head of
health and safety unit. Head of health and safety unit need to carry out audit for use of
explosive and flammable chemicals. Its audit includes ensuring proper storage, using
necessary PPEs during its utilization and ensuring suitable environment for its utilization
(Vince, 2011).
The CLP Regulation deals with the classification, labelling and packaging of substances and
mixtures. CLP regulation need to be implemented by head of the department and lab incharge
need to carry out all the activities of classification and labelling. There should be established
policy and procedure for proper classification and labelling of all the chemicals, reagents and
biological agents. These articles need to be classified according to its storage conditions,
potential risks and alphabetical order. It is useful in safe withdrawal of all these articles to
ensure protection from harm. This law is applicable to both college lab and hospital
microbiology lab. It is applicable during all the practicals. Lab incharge should take
responsibility of systematic withdrawal of chemicals during practicals according to its
classification and labels (Falck, 2012). Head of the department should take responsibility of
providing information related to storage conditions and potential risks of all the chemicals
and reagents to the lab incharge. Lab incharge need to prepare report and should submit to the
head of the department. Report should contain deviations observed per month in
classification and labelling of chemicals and reagents. Head of the department should audit
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CLP, every month. Audit should include observation and monitoring of classification and
labelling of all the chemicals and reagents (Hughes & Ferrett, 2015).
Management of potential risks and hazards:
Use of inflammable, toxic and corrosive chemicals like azos, peroxides, pyrophorics and
peroxidizables are more in the college laboratory in comparison to the hospital microbiology
laboratory. In microbiology laboratory also, chemical hazards like corrosives and toxins
exists; however, its impact is less in comparison to the college laboratory. Hence, law like
COSHH and COMAH is more applicable in the college laboratory in comparison to the
hospital microbiology laboratory. Use of sharps and ergonomic hazards are more in the
college laboratory; hence, PPEs like gloves, safety footwear and clothing are more useful in
the college laboratory. PPEs are also useful in the microbiology laboratory; however, only
gloves are enough in this laboratory. Gloves are useful in microbiology laboratory because
experimenter need to handle infectious agents like bacteria and viruses. Moreover, they need
to handle blood and other body fluids. Cut due to glasswares is more common in the college
laboratory and contamination due to spillage of blood and body fluids is more common in the
microbiology laboratory. Use of PPEs like gloves are effective in controlling and preventing
these hazards (Fuscaldo, 2012; Yarahmadi et al., 2016).
Hazards due to electrical power are common in both the laboratories due to improper use of
plastic protective tubes, electrical power outlets in the wet locations and improper use of
flexible extension cords. Hence, COMAH is equally effective in both the laboratories.
According to this law, there should be established policies and procedures for proper
maintenance of electrical connections. The CLP Regulation is equally applicable in both the
laboratories. In the college laboratory, all the chemicals need to be classified according its
potential risk factors. Henceforward, there would be improper mixing of different chemicals
which might lead to explosion. In the microbiology laboratory, all the biological reagents and
body fluids need to be stored with respect to their storage conditions. Improper storage of
biological reagents and body fluids are prone to produce microbial growth and infection to
the people working in the microbiology laboratory (Pal, 2013; Collins & Beale, 2015).
Benefits of health and safety procedures implementation:
Maintaining health and safety is beneficial to both employee and employer. Employees get
safe workplace and assurance of good health. It leads to improvement in the competency of
the employees. It helps in improving their assurance on the management of the college. It
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also helps in improving their interest and commitment in their job profile; hence, there would
be improvement in the productivity of the employees. Employer get benefited through
enhancement of their brand value and image. It is also helpful in demonstrating social
responsibility of the employer. It is helpful in fulfilling moral and legal duties for the
employer. It reduces burden of cost expenditure on employees (Leigh, 2016).
Employer reduces cost of expenditure on the employees by reducing medical expenses on the
employees, insurance cost, return-to-work payouts and cost for job accommodation. Along
with benefits to the employees, it is also beneficial for the students. Student’s health gets
protected from the hazardous and risk in the college. Moreover, students get opportunity to
work in the environment where policies, regulations and procedures are already established.
It would be beneficial for the students to get exposure to work according to rules and
regulations of the health and safety department of the college. It would be helpful for them in
their future occupations (McKinnon, 2016).
In the initial phase of the implementation of the health and safety rules and regulations, there
would be constrain for performing normal laboratory activities. However, with practice it
would become routine for both students and employees. Similar to the college laboratory,
implementation of health and safety rules and regulations in microbiology would be
beneficial for both employees and employer. Moreover, patients in the hospital get indirectly
benefited due to safety measures taken in the microbiology laboratory of the hospital.
Standardised procedures followed for the storage of the biological reagents, would result in
the consistent and accurate outcome in the patient’s diagnostic data. There is possibility of
more people getting benefited due to safe measures taken in the microbiology laboratory. In
college laboratory, harm might be mostly in the form of injury. Hence, only one person gets
affected. However, in case of microbiology laboratory infection might spread to many people
(McKinnon, 2016).
Conclusion:
Accurate assessment of the potential hazards and prevention of hazards according to laws are
helpful in effective implementation health and safety procedures in the college and hospital
microbiology laboratory. Accreditation need to be made mandatory for improving safe and
healthy environment in both college and medical hospital laboratory.
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