Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): Safety Equipment Scientists Must Wear in Labs

It is the responsibility of any person shooting video or photos in a University of Kentucky laboratory to make sure lab personnel (faculty, staff and students) are wearing the right equipment. The following requirements come from UK Occupational Health & Safety. 

Please be aware that lab personnel may not wear the proper equipment when you show up to shoot. Follow the rules below and ask them to comply. Tell them that you want the photos/video to tell the story of their research, not start a discussion of whether they have on enough or the right equipment. If photos or video do not follow the rules you will need to reshoot and discard those files. Reshoots waste everyone’s time and resources.

Even if they are “faking it” for the camera—using water instead of chemicals—if it looks like they are using chemicals, you have to follow these requirements.

Standard prescription eye glasses are not acceptable eye protection in these scenarios. Safety glasses/goggles are required where noted.

• At a microscope: lab coat and gloves
• At a fume hood: lab coat, gloves and safety glasses
• Any use of chemicals (pipetting, prepping slides, touching various science-related tools): lab coat, gloves and safety glasses
• Holding petri dishes/slides, holding zebrafish/salamander containers, putting samples into centrifuge/freezer: lab coat, gloves and safety glasses
• At a laser: lab coat, gloves and safety glasses (tinted, not clear).

The only exception is an “environmental portrait” of a VP, Dean, project leader in the lab without PPE. They must be in the foreground—not sitting at the bench—and they can’t be touching any science-related tools.

Photos submitted to the UK Photo Library will be screened for compliance to these rules. If you have questions while you are at a shoot or about whether an existing image is compliant, contact Alicia Gregory, apgreg@uky.edu.