In any laboratory setting, you need closed-toe shoes, long pants, a lab coat, safety glasses or goggles, and gloves appropriate for the materials you’re handling. These five items form the baseline for nearly every teaching and research lab. The specific requirements get stricter depending on what you’re working with, but getting the basics right covers most situations you’ll encounter.
Start With the Right Clothing Underneath
Your everyday clothes are your first layer of protection against spills, splashes, and minor exposures. Long pants that reach your ankles are standard in virtually every lab. Shorts, skirts, and capris leave skin exposed to chemicals or biological materials that could splash downward. The National Institutes of Health requires all personnel to wear long pants or full leg coverings any time they’re in a laboratory, and most universities follow the same rule.
Fabric choice matters more than most people realize. Cotton and other natural fibers are more fire-resistant than synthetics. Polyester, nylon, and similar materials can melt onto skin when exposed to fire or certain chemicals, turning a minor incident into a serious burn. Nylon tights and pantyhose carry this same risk. If you’re choosing between a cotton t-shirt and a polyester blend, go with cotton. A lab coat will cover your torso regardless, but the layer underneath still counts if something soaks through or if you need to remove the coat quickly.
Tops should cover your shoulders and midsection. Tank tops, crop tops, and sleeveless shirts leave too much skin exposed. A simple short-sleeved or long-sleeved cotton shirt works well under a lab coat.
Closed-Toe Shoes Are Non-Negotiable
Your shoes need to fully cover the tops of your feet and your toes. Sandals, flip-flops, open-toed shoes, and ballet flats with cutouts are all prohibited in standard lab settings. A dropped beaker, a spilled acid, or a falling piece of equipment can cause serious injury to an unprotected foot. OSHA requires protective footwear in any area where falling or rolling objects, sole-piercing hazards, or electrical risks are present.
For most teaching and research labs, a sturdy pair of sneakers or leather shoes that cover the entire foot is sufficient. Canvas shoes technically meet the closed-toe rule, but they absorb liquids quickly, so leather or synthetic uppers offer better protection against spills. Shoes should also cover the ankle area or sit close to it, since low-cut shoes paired with short socks can leave a gap between your pant cuff and shoe. Slip-on clogs without a back strap are sometimes rejected because they come off too easily in an emergency.
Lab Coats: Your Main Protective Layer
A lab coat protects your clothing and skin from splashes, spills, and contamination. In most introductory and research chemistry or biology labs, a standard cotton or cotton-polyester blend coat is appropriate. It should fit well enough to button or snap closed completely, with sleeves that reach your wrists. A coat that’s too large catches on equipment; one that’s too small won’t button shut.
For work involving open flames, pyrophoric chemicals, or flammable solvents in large quantities, flame-resistant lab coats made from treated cotton or specialized fabrics are the better choice. Standard cotton can ignite, but it chars rather than melting onto skin the way pure polyester does. Flame-resistant coats self-extinguish when the flame source is removed. Your lab supervisor or safety office will tell you which type your specific lab requires.
Keep your lab coat in the lab. Wearing it to the cafeteria or library defeats its purpose and can spread contamination to clean spaces.
Choosing the Right Gloves
Not all gloves protect against all chemicals. The thin nitrile gloves stocked in most labs handle a wide range of common substances well. They offer excellent resistance to alcohols like ethanol and isopropanol, which are among the most frequently used lab chemicals. They also work for brief, incidental contact with many solvents and acids when used as thicker 8-mil versions with double gloving.
Latex gloves are an alternative but pose allergy risks for some people and perform poorly against certain alcohols where nitrile excels. For highly aggressive solvents like chloroform, dichloromethane, or toluene, standard nitrile gloves only buy you minutes of protection during a brief splash. Extended work with these chemicals requires specialty gloves made from materials like butyl rubber or polyvinyl alcohol.
A few practical rules apply to all glove types. Change them immediately if they tear, discolor, or feel stiff. Never reuse disposable gloves. Remove them before touching doorknobs, phones, keyboards, or your face, since contaminated gloves spread hazardous material to every surface you touch. And when you take gloves off, peel them inside-out so the contaminated exterior doesn’t contact your skin.
Eye and Face Protection
Safety glasses with side shields are the minimum for most lab work. They protect against flying particles and minor splashes. When you’re working with liquid chemicals, corrosives, or anything that could splash upward, chemical splash goggles that seal against your face provide much better coverage. The gap between safety glasses and your cheeks is large enough for a splash to reach your eyes from below or the side.
If you wear prescription glasses, they do not count as safety glasses. You can wear safety goggles over your regular glasses, or invest in prescription safety glasses that meet impact-resistance standards. Many university labs stock goggles designed to fit over existing eyewear.
Contact lenses are permitted in most labs, though they are not a substitute for proper eye protection. OSHA does recommend against wearing contacts when working with a handful of specific chemicals, including acrylonitrile, methylene chloride, and ethylene oxide. If a chemical splash hits your eyes while you’re wearing contacts, start flushing with water immediately. Don’t waste time trying to remove the lenses first. Remove them only after thorough flushing, in a clean area, with washed hands.
Hair, Jewelry, and Other Personal Items
Long hair should be tied back so it can’t fall into chemicals, catch fire from a Bunsen burner, or get pulled into rotating equipment. A simple ponytail or bun works. Loose, dangling jewelry poses similar risks: necklaces, bracelets, and long earrings can dip into containers, snag on apparatus, or conduct electricity. Rings with raised settings can tear gloves. The simplest approach is to leave jewelry at home on lab days or tuck it securely under your clothing.
Loose, flowing clothing like scarves, wide sleeves, or hoodie drawstrings should be secured or removed. Anything that hangs freely near your work area is a hazard.
How Requirements Change in Specialized Labs
The baseline clothing described above applies to standard chemistry, biology, and physics labs. As the level of hazard increases, so do the requirements. Biosafety levels offer a clear illustration of this progression.
In a BSL-1 lab, which handles agents not known to cause disease in healthy adults, lab coats, gloves, and eye protection are worn as needed. BSL-2 labs, where moderately hazardous agents like Staphylococcus aureus or hepatitis B are present, require all of those items as standard practice rather than optional. BSL-3 labs working with potentially lethal airborne pathogens like tuberculosis add respirators to the list. And BSL-4 labs, the highest containment level, require a complete clothing change before entry, a full-body positive-pressure suit with its own air supply, and a shower upon exit.
Radiation labs, cleanrooms, and labs handling particularly dangerous chemicals each have their own additional requirements. Your lab’s safety orientation will spell out exactly what’s needed. When in doubt, overdressing is always safer than underdressing.