This is How laboratory chemicals gain entry into your body
Laboratory
chemicals are found commonly as solids, powders, gases, fumes and liquids. Your
body is vulnerable to harm through exposure to chemicals when you
work in laboratories. The extent of harm can depend on the level of exposure and individual tolerances to allergic reactions of such materials.
work in laboratories. The extent of harm can depend on the level of exposure and individual tolerances to allergic reactions of such materials.
In your school
days a lab coat was considered sufficient protection as such exposure was
limited to a small range of chemicals and reagents. However, as you moved from
school laboratory to college laboratory to research or industrial laboratory so
did the exposure increase to a wider range of chemicals having greater
potential hazards and toxicities. It is important for you to have awareness of
the routes that chemicals can take to enter your body so that you can take
required preventive measures.
Basically
there are four basic entry routes:
- Skin or eye contact
- Inhalation
- Oral ingestion
- Injection
The
article briefly discusses how the chemicals take the entry routes:
Skin or
eye contact
Skin is a
natural barrier which prevents you from the harmful effects of chemicals.
Liquids or dissolved solids or powders dissolved in naturally occurring
moisture on the skin can gain easy access into different layers of the skin and
find their way into the bloodstream. Solids or gases unless soluble in liquids
are seldom able to penetrate the skin layers. Some chemicals due to their
corrosive nature cause instantaneous burns and wounds on skin. The damage can
be serious if such exposure is left unattended
Eye contact
generally occurs on account of splashes caused by violent reactions or when
making the mistake of diluting strong acids by adding water to them. No doubt
corrosive acids can cause burn injuries but milder chemicals can enter the
blood veins through exposure through fine blood vessels of the eye. However, in
any case, immediate remedial measures are needed to be taken to prevent damage
to the eyesight.
Inhalation
Inhalation is
another common entry route of laboratory chemicals into your body. Laboratory
can present several sources of inhalation such as gases, solvent vapours,
corrosive or toxic fumes or suspended particulate matter. Though the
respiratory system has several defense mechanisms such as nasal hair and mucus
in respiratory airways but still such vapours or solid particles do manage to
reach the lungs and lodge into the bloodstream through absorption by blood
vessels in the lungs. On the other hand strongly corrosive vapours and fumes
can cause burn injuries in the respiratory tracts.
Oral
Ingestion
It would
indeed be rare for anyone to intentionally swallow the laboratory chemicals for
the sake of tasting them. However, danger exists through consumption of
contaminated foods and drinks in laboratories. On reaching the stomach such
chemicals enter the blood stream through blood vessels of the stomach lining or
the finger like projections of small intestine. However, fortunately the
unabsorbed chemicals get excreted without causing further damage.
Injection
Injection of
chemicals commonly takes place through accidental exposure such as carelessness
in handling injection syringes and needles or through careless handling of
broken bits of contaminated laboratory glassware or other laboratory sharps.
Such fragments need extreme care in handling and disposal.
The present
article covered the routes of entry of chemicals into the human body. A
subsequent article will cover the measures that should be adopted to prevent
harm from such ingested laboratory chemicals.
*lab-training*
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