Question: do you have to wear any inportant safty gear?

Gemma Purser answered on 27 Jun 2012:

Yes i do! Safety in the laboratory is really important.
In the lab I have to wear safety boots with a steel toe cap, these are to protect my toes incase i drop any of the heavy steel equipment onto them. I then have to wear a white lab coat. This is to act as another barrier and protect my skin against chemicals like acids. It stops me transferring chemicals to my normal clothes and possibly contaminating other things and finally it keeps my normal clothes clean! It can get a bit dirty in the lab when working with grease and cutting steel tubing.
Then if you check out the second picture on my profile about my typical day you can see a picture of me sampling the experiments. I have to wear goggles or like in the picture a visor to stop things going into my eyes. high pressure gases and liquids can travel quickly and a long way! The chemicals I use too like acids and alkalis are bad for your skin and eyes.

We have a poster in the lab of a person and it tells you the dangers of working with high pressure. It says what can happen to you if you get a blast of high pressure gas into a cut on your hand or into your belly button (Navel) and things like that. I always have a look at it every now and again to keep myself aware of the hazards so that i can make sure i am safe.