Team:East Chapel Hill/Safety

East Chapel Hill

• Team
  • Team
  • Collaborations
  • Attributions
• Project
  • Description
  • Results
  • Measurement
• Lab
  • Experiments
  • Safety
  • Notebook
• Parts
• Human Practices
  • Human Practices
  • Public Engagement

Safety

---

Granite and volcanic rocks are extremely high in fluoride, due to large amounts of fluoride-rich minerals, including: biotite, fluorite, amphibole, apatite. These high-fluoride deposits rise through faults and hot springs into groundwater. Prolonged exposure to these high levels of fluoride has been correlated to diseases such as dental and skeletal fluorosis. These diseases have most severe impacts in young children, whose enamel is still developing at the time of fluoride exposure. Please see our interview with Maiko Suzuki to learn specifically how fluorosis manifests in the teeth.

Safety in the lab is our top priority, especially considering that we were dealing with fluoride, a poisonous and toxic substance at concentrated levels.

Our Lab Rules

---

• One must always safety goggles, powder-free nitrile examination gloves, long pants, closed-toed shoes, and lab coats, before entering the space.
• Keep hair tied back at all times.
• Use ethanol to disinfect work table.
• Supervisors must be present in the lab at all times.
• No drinking or eating in the lab space.
• Dispose of pipette tips in waste bag.
• Have all petri dishes, containers, erlenmeyer flasks, etc. CLEARLY LABELED in order to maintain an organized environment.