Lab Accidents

Only 8 days at work and I have already had 2 lab accidents.. Best yet, both accidents occured on the same day!! My colleague is asking me to go home and pray hard (because of the month of 7th is upon us) while my mum is telling me that I'm not suitable for research work and why not I take up something more safer, like being a nutritionist or something..

For those that still do not know, I had 2 lab accidents yesterday.. One before lunch and one after..

First Accident

I was filtering some solvent for high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) when my superior (some sort like a supervisor, but they call them superior.. Don't ask me why, I'm figuring that part out as well.. =D) realised I used the wrong membrane for the filter.. As it turned out, that membrane I used was not suitable for the solvent I was filtering and had melted onto the filter set.. My superior then gave me another filter set to work with.. Unfortunately, the filter set wasn't the RIGHT set, meaning to say that some of the parts were of another set, so when I started filtering the solvent, it all "happily" spilt onto my hands.. Thank God I wore gloves, BUT, sad to say, solvents are actually capable of penetrating the gloves and I started feeling burning sensation on my hands!!

Second Accident

While I was filtering the samples into the liquid chromatography (LC) vials, I pricked my finger with a syringe!! This time, totally due to my own carelessness.. My superior was so anxious, you should have seen it.. But thank God again, the syringe that pricked my finger was a new syringe so

I was not in any danger of any potentially dangerous chemical entering my blood stream.. phew!
Well, I didn't mention about how the mess was cleared up or how I treated my wounds because I don't want to bore you people out of this blog!! So then, thats my 2 lab accidents.. I sure wish that none are yet to come.. And sure as hell, I'm going to pray extra hard for my safety at work from now on.. =)

p/s: working in a lab isn't necessary dangerous if you take correct precaution methods and be more careful.. So don't let my post scare you off.. haha

A picture of me in my dress during the Graduation Night of MAP.. A more happier time.. haha