The SF State campus is home to more than just classrooms. The range of structures and facilities include a power plant, grounds keeping and facilities services offices, police department, research laboratories, food service kitchens, and art studios. Each of these entities, as well as others, may use various types of hazardous materials including, but not limited to, fuels, chlorine, pesticides, cleansers, radioactive or biological materials, and acids.

Read the example situation on this page and consider the appropriate steps.

A student working in a College of Science and Engineering lab decants a measure of hydrochloric acid into a beaker.

The student follows all the safety precautions but when he recaps the stock bottle and begins to pick it up, the neck of the bottle breaks and the bottle smashes on the floor.

Amazingly, the student is so far unharmed, except for some acid splashed on his leather shoes.

What steps should be taken?

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Last modified April 30, 2007 by the University Police Department