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- Health and safety in the laboratory and field
Health and safety in the laboratory and field

Health, safety and risk assessment are of paramount importance both in the laboratory and the field. This free course, Health and safety in the laboratory and field, will help make you more aware of the hazards and risks involved wherever you undertake your research, as well as giving you an overview of the legal requirements attached to this work. The course discusses issues involved in the handling of chemical and biological agents, basic safety procedures and common field-work hazards.
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
- understand the legal framework of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and Regulations associated with it
- understand the employers’, employees’ and visitors’ duties
- evaluate hazards and risks in order to carry out a risk assessment
- understand the legal requirement to report any accident or dangerous occurrence
- develop risk assessments for scientific laboratories that use chemicals or biological organisms or both.
First Published: 09/08/2012
Updated: 17/12/2018
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If you want to be able to track your progress, earn a free Statement of Participation, and access all course quizzes and activities, sign-up.
Course content
- Introduction
- Learning outcomes
- 1 Overview
- 1 Overview
- 1 History of health and safety
- 2 Legal requirements of health and safety in the UK
- 3 Office safety
- 4 First aid and emergency procedures
- 5 General laboratory health and safety
- 6 Chemical health and safety
- 7 Hazards, risk and the process of risk assessment
- 8 Biological health and safety
- 9 Field-work health and safety, UK and abroad
- 10 Risk assessment exercise
- Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- This site has Copy Reuse Tracking enabled - see our FAQs for more information.
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About this free course
1 hour study
Level 1: Introductory
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