DMSE - Laboratory Safety

All persons working in MIT laboratories must be aware of the safety rules appropriate to the Institute in general and to the particular laboratory in question. You are required to exercise proper safety procedures yourself, and to insist that your coworkers do the same.

The Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE) has a well established safety program, and some of its features are:

Before any person can be allowed to work in a departmental laboratory, he or she must pass a Safety Quiz administered by the department.
The Safety Quiz draws on material in the Departmental Safety Primer, which is available both online and in hardcopy. All persons using the laboratories are required to have read this document.
The Department also has an important OSHA-mandated document, the Chemical Hygiene Plan. This document contains additional information relative to chemical safety beyond that in the Primer. It is not necessary to study this document in preparing for the Safety Quiz, but your Laboratory Supervisor may instruct you in those portions of the Plan relevant to that specific laboratory.
The Materials Structure Laboratory subject (3.081) administers the safety quiz as part of its curriculum, and this provides a convenient mechanism for most students to meet the quiz requirement.
Students who do not pass the quiz via 3.081 must arrange on their own to take it. See Mr. Fred Wilson (room 13-4078, phone 3-6866) for an appointment.
The Safety Primer and Quiz cover only general information, and specific instructions appropriate to a particular laboratory and its procedures must be given to you, in a formal briefing, by the laboratory supervisor.
If for whatever reason you do not receive a laboratory briefing, and sign the associated release form, you must insist on it from the supervisor. It is for your own safety, and for those around you.
If and when new procedures or materials are introduced within a laboratory you're already using, insist that the supervisor brief you on the appropriate safety measures.
The Department has a team of inspectors. led by Mr. Pat Kearney (room 13-5005, phone 3-6934), that is tasked to inspect each departmental laboratory twice a year for compliance with safety procedures.
The Departmental Safety Officer is Prof. Harry Tuller (room 13-3126, phone 3-6890); contact him if you have questions concerning the program, or if you see ways to strengthen it.
While the professor in charge bears direct responsibility for safety in her or his laboratory, the students working there are really the persons most directly affected. You'll do yourselves and your colleagues a real favor if you watch for errors such as these in your own laboratory, and work - both by yourselves and with your supervisor - to get them corrected.

roylance@mit.edu