using personal protective equipment first let's don ppe always secure long hair and loose clothing out of the way to ensure they don't interfere with experiments first step in donning is to put on your body protection ensure that lab coats are clean and buttoned up completely the next step in donning is to put on appropriate eye protection followed lastly by donning your gloves choose gloves appropriate for your materials and ensure that the glove cuffs cover your lab coat cuffs always check for tears prior to beginning your work now let's talk about body protection body protection can take many different forms this can include a regular lab coat or a fire retardant lab coat required for working with pyrophoric materials some procedures may also require a splash apron to be worn over a laboratory coat such as using liquid nitrogen or particularly messy procedures it is also acceptable to wear an apron and disposable sleeves or scrubs depending on the type of work you do it is important to remember that your torso should be fully covered from your shoulders to your wrist when removing body protection always ensure that you touch the interior surfaces of your laboratory coat this helps prevent contamination on your hands whenever you remove your coat make sure that you store it appropriately this can either be on a lab coat rack by itself a hanger by itself as well or you can also fold it inside out and store it inside of a sealable plastic bag now let's talk about eye protection safety glasses should be ansi certified against the hazards you work with including uv laser or impact also choose appropriate eye protection in the form of safety glasses otgs or over the glasses glasses or splash goggles if you ever need to use a face shield for particularly messy or hazardous substances make sure you use eye protection and a face shield always remove eye protection using the ear pieces or the headband now let's talk about gloves always ensure you select appropriate gloves you can check glove compatibility charts available from vendors to select gloves appropriate for your materials never touch personal items or environmental surfaces check for leaks before beginning work always double glove if necessary if you know you're going to get messy wear two pairs of gloves pay attention to sensations in your hands and change gloves if you notice anything funny discard them immediately after you have a spill or when you complete your work and never reuse disposable gloves also remember specialized hand protection like thermal protective gloves cryo protective gloves work gloves rubber gloves sharp resistant gloves make sure you choose what protects you the best so you're working in the lab one day and you gotta check your phone complete your homework for your other class scratch your nose check that gas cylinder oh gotta tell your friend bye oh wait hey it's time to leave by touching your personal items and environmental surfaces that you normally don't touch with gloved hands you're contaminating everything not only for yourself but everyone else who comes along after you now let's talk about proper lab attire cloth tennis shoes are not appropriate for the laboratory and well this is why you also shouldn't have skin showing from your waist down including your feet your ankles and any holes in your pants proper shoes for lab cover your entire foot and are liquid repellent well because of reasons like this and shorts or skirts are never allowed in the lab never wear ppe in public areas including elevators hallways classrooms or office spaces you must wear ppe in your lab space anytime that there are laboratory hazards not secured behind a physical barrier this includes when lab mates are working and you aren't sitting at a computer in a lab space still requires a lab coat and eye protection now let's take off or doff ppe it's the exact reversal of donning first remove your gloves let's watch that again but more detailed i have my gloves on i'm going to use some paint here to mock some contamination on my gloves so i have contaminated gloves and how do i take them off without touching my skin and then thus contaminating my person so you want to pinch the palm of one of your gloves you never want to go from the very bottom because then you'll touch your skin and pull off that first glove you want to make sure you pull it off slowly otherwise you're going to aerosolize whatever contaminants happen to be on your glove at that time so you ball that glove up in your still gloved hand so i call this clean hand dirty hand take your clean hand and this one can go underneath the cuff of your glove and then you want to pull that one off inside out as well so then you want to make sure that you dispose of your gloves into a trash receptacle step two remove your eye protection by the ear pieces lastly remove your lab coat by only touching the interior surfaces of your lab coat ensure that you store it in such a way so as to prevent contamination of the inside of your coat always wash your hands prior to leaving the laboratory even though you wear gloves that doesn't mean that they are impervious to the materials you handle best practice wash your hands then secure your laboratory space you