Teachers should purchase specimens for dissection from reliable sources. Supply houses specialize in providing science classrooms with preserved specimens. Using a non-specialized vendor or specimens found in the wild can expose students to a higher risk of bacterial contamination.
Students and teachers who handle specimens for dissection should wear personal protective equipment. The equipment includes rubber gloves to prevent direct skin contact with the specimens and chemical-splash goggles so no fluids from the specimen contact eyes. Teachers need sufficient quantities of these items for all their students. Students should understand the importance of wearing the protective equipment at all times during the dissection. Advising students not to touch their face and eyes while wearing the gloves and to change gloves if they become contaminated is essential.
Washing hands, particularly under the fingernails, in hot water with liquid soap is important after each dissection. The laboratory should have at least one sink so the teacher can monitor the hand washing to ensure it is done properly for student safety. The classroom also should have a hand sanitizer containing at least 65 percent alcohol readily available so students can clean their hands quickly in the event of direct contact with a specimen.
Following the dissections, all equipment used needs to be soaked in a commercial disinfectant solution sold in stores or in a disinfectant solution consisting of 5 percent bleach and 95 percent water . Additionally, all surfaces where dissections were completed need to be cleaned with a disinfectant. Students who help with the cleaning should wear gloves and goggles to avoid contact with bacteria and cleaning chemicals.
Disposing of the specimens and preservatives properly after the dissection is important. The procedure requires pouring liquid preservative into a bucket that can be sealed. Whole and unused specimens are placed in a biological hazard, or bio-hazard, bin. The bin and the sealed bucket can be removed safely by the area's office of environmental health and safety. Any of the remains from the dissected specimens are put into plastic bags that can be sealed and placed in the trash.