Health & Safety
See the health and safety notes in each experiment. This is general guidance.
Health and safety in school and college science affects all concerned: teachers and technicians, their employers, students, their parents or guardians, as well as authors and publishers.
These guidelines refer to procedures in the United Kingdom. If you are working in another country you may need to make alternative provision.
Health & safety checking
As part of the reviewing process, the experiments on this website have been checked for health and safety. In particular, we have attempted to ensure that:
- all recognized hazards have been identified,
- suitable precautions are suggested,
- where possible, the procedures are in accordance with commonly adopted model (general) risk assessments,
- where model (general) risk assessments are not available, we have done our best to judge the procedures to be satisfactory and of an equivalent standard.
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Assumptions
It is assumed that:
- the practical work is carried out or supervised by a qualified science teacher with adequate knowledge of biology and the equipment used,
- practical work is conducted in a properly equipped and maintained laboratory,
- rules for student behaviour are strictly enforced,
- mains-operated equipment is regularly inspected, properly maintained and appropriate records are kept,
- care is taken with normal laboratory operations such as heating substances and handling heavy objects,
- good laboratory practice is observed when chemicals are handled,
- eye protection is worn whenever risk assessments require it,
- any fume cupboard used operates at least to the standard of Building Bulletin 88,
- students are taught safe techniques for such activities as heating chemicals, smelling them, or pouring from bottles,
- hand-washing facilities are readily available in the laboratory.
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Teachers' and their employers' responsibilities
Under the COSSH Regulations, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations, and other regulations, employers are responsible for making a risk assessment before hazardous procedures are undertaken or hazardous chemicals used or made. Teachers are required to co-operate with their employers by complying with such risk assessments.
However, teachers should be aware that mistakes can be made and, in any case, different employers adopt different standards.
Therefore, before carrying out any practical activity, teachers should always check that what they are proposing is compatible with their employer’s risk assessments and does not need modification for their particular circumstances. Any local rules issued by the employer must always be followed, whatever is recommended here. However, far less is banned by employers than is commonly supposed.
Reference material
Model (general) risk assessments have been taken from, or are compatible with:
CLEAPSS Hazcards (see annually updated CLEAPSS Science publications CD-ROM)
CLEAPSS Laboratory handbook (see annually updated CD-ROM)
CLEAPSS Recipe cards (see annually updated CD-ROM)
ASE Safeguards in the school laboratory 11th edition 2006
ASE Topics in Safety 3rd edition, 2001
ASE Safety reprints, 2006 or later
Procedures
Clearly, you must follow whatever procedures for risk assessment your employers have laid down. As far as we know, almost all the practical work and demonstrations on this website are covered by the model (general) risk assessments detailed in the above publications, and so, in most schools and colleges, you will not need to take further action, other than to consider whether any customisation is necessary for the particular circumstances of your school or class.
Special risk assessments
Only you can know when your school or college needs a special risk assessment. But thereafter, the responsibility for taking all the steps demanded by the regulations lies with your employer.
External websites
The Nuffield Foundation, Society of Biology, and CLEAPSS are not responsible for the content of external websites which may be linked from pages on this one.
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