How to Put on Your Personal Protective Equipment

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and the approved clothing is required in labs to prevent injury and accidents while performing an experiment. Knowing what PPE and clothing you need to wear and how to put on your PPE correctly is a necessary skill for many physical science majors. If you wear the wrong PPE and clothing or you put on your PPE incorrectly, you can be kicked out of your lab. Many times your professor and teaching assistants will not allow you to redo a lab if you were wearing the incorrect PPE or clothing.

Any experience level can preform this task.

It should take you no longer than 5 minutes to successfully put on your PPE.

The basic supplies needed for this task are: long pants, closed toed shoes, a t-shirt with sleeves, a lab coat and goggles. All these items are explained in further detail in step one.

Step 1: Before You Begin

Before you begin you should make sure you are wearing the following:

Pants, that go down to your shoes
A non-baggy t-shirt with sleeves
Closed toed shoes

Make sure you have all of your PPE equipment ready to go.

Lab coat, that is not over-sized or too small.
- It should fit you to your knees and the sleeves should go down to your wrists.
- Your lab coat should be loose but not baggy. Make sure the coat lays flat on your body once it is buttoned. If something is spilled the coat will prevent the substance from getting on you.
Goggles, full coverage, not just the glasses.
- The goggles will fit over your glasses if you wear glasses.
- This type of goggle is a Baylor lab requirement.

If you have long hair or bangs, you must pin them back securely.

This prevents your hair from getting in your way or getting caught on anything in lab.

Step 2: Your Lab Coat

First you will put on your lab coat

Make sure you button all of the buttons on your lab coat.
- This prevents your lab coat from opening and catching on things in the lab.

Step 3: Goggles

Next you will put on your goggles.

To prevent them from fogging you can poke out the holes on the sides.
- This will not affect the safety the goggles provide.
Be sure to adjust the straps so that your goggles don’t slip off or give you a headache because they are too tight.

Step 4: Ready for Lab

At this point you are ready for lab.

Latex free gloves are provided in every lab and are not put on until you enter the lab and put your belongings away.
- You are only allowed to bring a pen, calculator and lab notebook to your station.
Once you put on your gloves you are not allowed to touch your personal items (which should be in a cabinet) because you may have already contaminated your gloves.