Team:Lethbridge Canada/safety

From 2013hs.igem.org

(Difference between revisions)
Line 73: Line 73:
<h1 class="heading_first">Personal Safety:</h1>
<h1 class="heading_first">Personal Safety:</h1>
-
<p>Due to the nature of the iGEM and the need to work closely with bacteria, chemicals, and other potentially harmful substances such as radiation encountered within the laboratory, the safety of our team members is absolutely critical. As such, each and every member of the Lethbridge iGEM High School team is extremely careful to always use personal protective equipment when in the lab. This protective equipment includes disposable, impermeable gloves to shield team members' hands from any harmful chemicals or bacteria, as well as mitigating the risk of cross-contamination of our specimens, and a lab coat and goggles in order to protect the team member from accidental contact with any potentially harmful substances that may be in the lab.</p>
+
<p><b>1. Would any of your project ideas raise safety issues in terms of researcher safety, public safety or environmental safety?</b></p>
-
<p>In addition to the preventative measures listed above, there are also several facilities available for use if unsafe contact with a chemical or other substance does happen. These facilities include an eye wash station as well as an emergency shower, and every team member knows where they are and is capable of operating them if the need were to arise. Furthermore, a complete Material Safety Data Sheet binder, or MSDS, is kept in the lab and provides information on dangers of substances and how to treat unsafe contact with the substance, as well as instructions for disposal, and is located in the entrance to our lab where anyone can access it. All team members know the location of this binder.</p>
+
<p>The Lethbridge High School iGEM team works in a university laboratory with Containment Level 1. We work with non-pathogenic strains of E.coli, DH5ɑ and BL21(DE3). </p>
-
<p>Prior to any team member having been allowed to participate in experiments, they were required to have taken and passed a Workplace Hazardous Material Information System (WHMIS) test. Currently, every experiment that is performed by the High School iGEM team is supervised and approved by an experienced university student, tutorials are given, and team members are encouraged to ask questions if at any moment they feel that they do not know what to do, or how to do it.</p>
+
<p>There are some hazardous chemicals with which we work in the lab, such as ethidium bromide. Team members always wear appropriate personal protective equipment – gloves, lab coats, protective glasses, pants and closed toed shoes. Our supervisors assist us when we work with organic substances and heavy metals (for example, formaldehyde and silver stain waste). We have a fire extinguisher, emergency shower, an eye-wash station and a first aid kit readily available. We also are always working with one of our University student advisors. All high school students received WHMIS and lab-specific safety training prior to starting our project.
 +
</p>
-
<h1>Environmental/Public Safety:</h1>
+
-
<p>At the Lethbridge High School iGEM laboratory, every precaution is taken to avoid potential environmental damage or contamination. Despite the minute likelihood of an unwanted escape of any of our chemicals or bacteria, precautions have been taken and strictly adhered to. The Escherichia Coli strain used in our laboratory is a laboratory-specific, harmless variant of E. Coli known as DH5 alpha, which has been engineered not to be able to survive outside of the laboratory setting. This being said, all bacteria are nevertheless kept in sealed containers and transported with great care.</p>
+
<p>If we are successful in producing Oxytocin, we will be keeping it contained from public use. It would be available for research purposes only. Due to the fact that there is little known about the hormone, we want to make it available to researchers. An environmental risk is the possibility of the bacteria containing our parts escape the lab. There is the risk of horizontal gene transfer to other organisms, which may enable them to also produce Oxytocin. Oxytocin has been implicated in multiple cell-pathways so it is difficult to predict what effect it may have on the environment 1.</p>
 +
 
 +
<p><b>2. Do any of the new BioBrick parts (or devices) that you made this year raise safety issues?</b></p>
 +
 
 +
                                                <p>Our part containing the gene for Oxytocin-Neurophysin I does not raise any significant safety issues. If all bacteria, DNA, protein samples and chemicals are handled according to protocol, working with our part is quite safe.</p>
 +
 
 +
<p><b>3. Is there a local biosafety group, committee, or review board at your institution?</b></p>
 +
 
 +
<p>The group at the University of Lethbridge responsible for biosafety is Risk and Safety Services. They are aware of the project and are very excited about the High School iGEM Program. We have complied with the Risk and Safety Services regulation by getting WHMIS and Lab-specific safety training, providing volunteer consent forms and permission forms when travelling for workshops and the Jamboree.</p>
 +
<p>Biosafety Manual:</p>
 +
<p>Laboratory Safety Manual:<p>
 +
 
 +
<p><b>4. Do you have any other ideas how to deal with safety issues that could be useful for future iGEM competitions? How could parts, devices and systems be made even safer through biosafety engineering?</b></p>
 +
 
 +
<p>We think that there should be another means of observing the production and results of the findings produced within a specific iGEM lab from an outside source. An outside source that is very qualified regarding the field of synthetic biology, capable of examining the creation of new parts, the installment of assured safety measures and the handing out of results to the world. We would require the Risk and Safety Services of our institution to bring in this individual and have them work with the Risk and Safety Committee. By having and independent third party examine the work of an iGEM team; we can be certain that our parts are as safe as possible. Assured safety through the use of an outside source not directly relatable to the iGEM team, will assure troubleshooting to the possible problem of misguided information and action that could result in interference outside of the lab.</p>
-
<p>There is no biosafety group, committee, or review board at the University of Lethbridge, however we have been extremely careful in following the University's risk and safety guidelines. Finally, we have also deferred to the Public Health Agency of Canada – Laboratory Biosafety and Biosecurity.</p>
 
</div>
</div>

Revision as of 22:03, 20 June 2013



Personal Safety:

1. Would any of your project ideas raise safety issues in terms of researcher safety, public safety or environmental safety?

The Lethbridge High School iGEM team works in a university laboratory with Containment Level 1. We work with non-pathogenic strains of E.coli, DH5ɑ and BL21(DE3).

There are some hazardous chemicals with which we work in the lab, such as ethidium bromide. Team members always wear appropriate personal protective equipment – gloves, lab coats, protective glasses, pants and closed toed shoes. Our supervisors assist us when we work with organic substances and heavy metals (for example, formaldehyde and silver stain waste). We have a fire extinguisher, emergency shower, an eye-wash station and a first aid kit readily available. We also are always working with one of our University student advisors. All high school students received WHMIS and lab-specific safety training prior to starting our project.

If we are successful in producing Oxytocin, we will be keeping it contained from public use. It would be available for research purposes only. Due to the fact that there is little known about the hormone, we want to make it available to researchers. An environmental risk is the possibility of the bacteria containing our parts escape the lab. There is the risk of horizontal gene transfer to other organisms, which may enable them to also produce Oxytocin. Oxytocin has been implicated in multiple cell-pathways so it is difficult to predict what effect it may have on the environment 1.

2. Do any of the new BioBrick parts (or devices) that you made this year raise safety issues?

Our part containing the gene for Oxytocin-Neurophysin I does not raise any significant safety issues. If all bacteria, DNA, protein samples and chemicals are handled according to protocol, working with our part is quite safe.

3. Is there a local biosafety group, committee, or review board at your institution?

The group at the University of Lethbridge responsible for biosafety is Risk and Safety Services. They are aware of the project and are very excited about the High School iGEM Program. We have complied with the Risk and Safety Services regulation by getting WHMIS and Lab-specific safety training, providing volunteer consent forms and permission forms when travelling for workshops and the Jamboree.

Biosafety Manual:

Laboratory Safety Manual:

4. Do you have any other ideas how to deal with safety issues that could be useful for future iGEM competitions? How could parts, devices and systems be made even safer through biosafety engineering?

We think that there should be another means of observing the production and results of the findings produced within a specific iGEM lab from an outside source. An outside source that is very qualified regarding the field of synthetic biology, capable of examining the creation of new parts, the installment of assured safety measures and the handing out of results to the world. We would require the Risk and Safety Services of our institution to bring in this individual and have them work with the Risk and Safety Committee. By having and independent third party examine the work of an iGEM team; we can be certain that our parts are as safe as possible. Assured safety through the use of an outside source not directly relatable to the iGEM team, will assure troubleshooting to the possible problem of misguided information and action that could result in interference outside of the lab.

Retrieved from "http://2013hs.igem.org/Team:Lethbridge_Canada/safety"