Laboratory Safety

You must use proper safety techniques when working in a lab to ensure the safety of you and any bystanders/helpers. The safety techniques should always be used any time you are in the lab. Even if it doesn't seem neccesary for the experiment you are performing.

Lab environment:

Your lab should have good ventilation. Most home chemists use their garage for a lab because in an emergency, the garage door can be opened and all poisonous gases or fumes will be removed quickly.
Your lab should be clean. If bottles are laying around, they can get knocked over or knocked off the table. If there is stuff on the floor, you could trip over it while trying to run away (no, I'm not joking).
The lab should be warm. Standard room temperature is good enough. If the lab is cold, you are possibly going to shake. There is nothing like shaking while trying to carefully drip something into a testube. This is generally overlooked, so remember it.
Never eat, drink, smoke (obviously), or make fish-mouth imitations in the laboratory. If you eat, you could contaminate your food with whatever is on your hands/gloves. Same applies for the drinking rule. You should never smoke even near a lab because of all the highly flammable chemicals involved. Yes, I was joking about the fish-mouth imitations part.

Safety Devices:

Fire Extinguishers
Fire Blankets
Eyewash Stations
Emergency Showers

Safety Equipment:

Safety Equipment is defined as the stuff you wear to keep yourself safe in the event of an accident. These include, but are not limited to:

Goggles

Gloves

Lab Apron

Face Sheild

Ear Protection

Gas masks

Full body chemical suits

The goggles should be splash goggles (indirect vents). The gloves should be different for each job. When working with explosives, it is advisable to wear thick, leather, welding gloves. When working with chemicals, simple latex gloves will do. Lap aprons are not neccesary but should be worn just to keep you safer. Face sheilds should always be worn in conjunction with goggles. Typically these are worn when handling explosives. Ear protection is mainly only neccesary during testing of explosives, but should be worn during general handling of explosives incase an accident occurs. Gas masks are rarely neccesary and can give you a false sense of security. Remember, just because you don't smell it, doesn't mean its not there. Very rarely does a need for a full body chemical suit arise in ones home laboratory.