After reading this post, I hope you will be able to know 3 kind of hazards and identify what kind of actions you need to apply for your safety. Before that, I'd like to tell you about my shocking and unexpected experience, several days ago, when I was in the location where the explosion accident in the laboratory happened.
It was on Monday, I was doing my routine activities in the laboratory every day. I was moving my samples in the bottle saved in the refrigerator in the Research Laboratory to the vacuum microwave in the Qualitative Chemistry Laboratory. Just for your information, both laboratory are located adjacent to each other, both are in the same floor, and only separated by a corridor. The Qualitative Chemistry Laboratory is composed of 3 spaces, they were the front, the middle, and the back space. After I arrived in the Qualitative Chemistry Laboratory, there were 70 students doing their practicum in the front space, while I headed to the vacuum microwave in the back space.
To open the vacuum microwave, I needed to release the vacuum pressure, so the air pressure inside and outside the microwave is the same. After all of samples were placed inside the microwave, I needed to close back the microwave by decreasing the pressure until vacuum, and then I needed to press the black button. As I almost pressed the black button. "BOOOOOM," something exploded. I stayed calm and checked the vacuum microwave to find out, if there was something broken or not. But I found out, there was no error. I thought, it might be somewhere in the laboratory, so I turned my body back. I saw students screaming and running out from the laboratory. I could see clearly the smoke from the explosion source. After almost all the students escaped from the laboratory, I still stood silently, until I see two girls near the explosion source with red face and full of blood. Quickly, the laboratory staff save them and brought them to the hospital, and the floor was full of blood.
In this writing, I'm not going to tell about why the accident happened, but I'm going to share about the lesson learned. The lesson is, hazards is always stalking us anytime and anywhere. So we need to be prepared to face the hazards. In this case, you need to know 3 kind of hazards, they are chemical, biological, and physical hazards. It doesn't mean, only people who works in the laboratory who are at risk on those kind of hazards. Actually, every people is at risk. Then, you need to identify what kind of action to apply for your safety based on those kind of hazards.
Firstly, it's chemical hazard. Every time you get contact with something composed of chemical substance, you are at risk on chemical hazard. So, you need to avoid this chemical hazard by recognizing the hazard symbol. Every chemical substance must have the hazard symbol. The common hazard symbol in the chemical substance usually used in daily activity is a symbol illustrated with a flaming fire. It means that, if there is a fire close to the chemical substance, it will make an explosion.
Secondly, it's biological hazard. Every people are at risk on biological hazard. Because naturally, we are surrounded by micro bacteria. There are various micro bacteria and various infectious disease caused by micro bacteria, from mild to severe disease. The first line to avoid the micro bacterial infection is by washing your hand before and after having meals. So the risk on biological hazard will be decreased.
Thirdly, it's physical hazard. The hazard comes from physics things. For example your chair, your shoes, and the room lighting. If you are not comfortable to sit on a chair, you may have back or muscle pain. If you are not comfortable to wear a high heels, you may feel pain or have injury on your feet. Or if you are in a room with poor lighting, your vision becomes worse or makes your eyes tired. So, you need to choose comfortable chair, comfortable shoes, and arrange the room lighting properly. Then, you will not have back pain, injury on your feet, or tired eyes.
In conclusion, there are 3 kind of hazards, chemical, biological, and physical hazards. Then, you need to identify what kind of action you need to apply for your safety based on those kind of hazards. Please keep in mind, safety is more important than convenience. I hope you reader will get the lesson learned from my story and apply the safety in your every day life. Thank you for visiting my blog :D
