All contaminated or infected substances should be handled in such a way as to minimize aerosols. Laboratory coats should be worn over street clothes when animals are being worked with. This will decrease the contamination of street clothing. These laboratory clothes should be left in the lab and should not be worn during eating. No jewelry should be worn that can be caught in equipment or carry infectious materials.
Additional precautions are necessary for a number of specific hazardous agents.
If infected material is being used in a laboratory, specific guidelines should be followed for the handling of these biologically sensitive materials. All work surfaces should be appropriately decontaminated daily and after any spill of animal related materials. Emergency procedures, including the most current telephone number for the University Health Services, and other relevant emergency telephone numbers, should be established and posted in each area where animals are housed or used. Careful hand washing should be done before and after handling of animals and prior to leaving the laboratory for any reason. Certain infections are transmitted from animals to humans primarily by the animals' feces or urine entering a human's body or mouth.