Lance:
We use chemicals at the aged care centre. We use them to help keep things clean like when we’re mopping the floor or washing clothes. Chemicals are useful but we have to make sure we handle them the right way or they could make us or the people we care for sick. You don’t want to get chemicals on your hands or leave them on your skin. And you definitely don’t want to drink them.
Let’s see how we safely handle chemicals.
Hey whoa there. What are you doing?
Samuel:
I want to water down this cleaning stuff so that I can use it. I have to put it in a smaller bottle to do that.
Lance:
That’s right. But we don’t put any chemical into another bottle unless it is a proper cleaning bottle. These are called dilution bottles. You’ve got to use them. They show you how much chemical to mix.
Samuel:
Dilution bottles?
Lance:
Yeah. And these dilution bottles always have a label on them, the right label like this one.
Samuel:
But I’ve seen other people just put stuff like this in an empty bottle. Why have we got to use a special one?
Lance:
Putting chemicals into a soft drink bottle is the wrong way. What if a kiddie or old person thought that it was a drink?
Samuel:
Oh yeah. That would be dangerous. It might hurt someone.
Lance:
Yeah. That’s also why we make sure that any bottle with chemicals in it has a label on it. The label says what the chemical is. If someone spills it or gets it splashed on them we know what it is and what we have to do to fix things.
Samuel:
How do you know what to do for each chemical?
Lance:
Good question. We have these information sheets here in this folder. They’re called Safety Data Sheets or SDSs. We’ve got to have one for every chemical here.
Samuel:
Good to know. I’ll leave this here to fix up later. I have to go and get the old man’s breakfast.
Lance:
No. You can’t leave chemicals like that about. You clean it up before you go out. I’ll go and help with breakfast. Put that empty drink bottle in the rubbish bin and don’t forget to wash your hands properly when you’ve finished.
Samuel:
But I’m wearing gloves. Judith told me I have to always wear gloves when I’m handling chemicals.
Lance:
Yes that’s good. But you can still get some chemical on your skin so it’s always a good idea to clean your hands properly after handling chemicals. You don’t want to make yourself sick.
Samuel:
So now you know about how to correctly store and use chemicals. You got any questions talk to your supervisor about it.
Aged care centres, and the homes of people receiving care as far as practicable, must remain clean and tidy to prevent accidents and infections. One way to do this is to use chemicals that help clean and sanitise the environment.
Use this facilitator guide to support discussion about the correct way of handling and storing chemicals in aged care.
Stories, people and places are based on individuals from different communities in East Arnhem Land. For cultural appropriateness, names have been changed.