Team:IIT Delhi/Safety
We at iGEM understand the necessity of working in a safe environment. A safe environment ensures a non-hesitant mind that designs more efficient biological devices.
About lab safety and training:
- Lab access and rules (including appropriate clothing, eating and drinking, etc.).
- Responsible individuals (such as lab or departmental specialist or institutional biosafety officer).
- Differences between biosafety levels.
- Biosafety equipment (such as biosafety cabinets).
- Good microbial technique (such as lab practices).
- Disinfection and sterilization.
- Emergency procedures.
- Chemicals, fire and electrical safety.
Bio-safety Rules and Regulations
- iGEM IIT Delhi has always been following all biosafety rules of our institution and concerned biosafety laws of our country.
- EHLSU (Environmental Health and Lab Safety Unit) is responsible for holding up all the safety guidelines in all the labs (including ours) at the institution. The guidelines can be found on the link -
http://www.dbtindia.nic.in/wp-content/uploads/Draft-Biosafety-Regulations-and-Biocontainment-Guidelines-2017-FF.pdf - The safety guidelines for all the labs in our region (North India) are declared and monitored by EHLSU, whose rules can be found on the following link -
http://www.dbtindia.nic.in/wp-content/uploads/Draft-Biosafety-Regulations-and-Biocontainment-Guidelines-2017-FF.pdf - iGEM IIT Delhi did not conduct any experiment with human subjects (including non-invasive experiments, such as surveys), for the surveys conducted we have followed the rules of our institution.
General Safety Rules of the lab
- Instructions are strictly followed
- Personal protection equipment is must and hair should be tied
- Working areas and common work areas are kept tidy and regularly wiped with cleansing agents like ethanol
- Pipette tips, media, eppendorf tubes are autoclaved and Glassware; tools are cleaned with ethanol before usage
- Handwash is a must after entering and before leaving the lab.
- Gloves are used while handling carcinogenic agents like EtBr and high temperature objects.
- There is a separate work bench for experiments in which toxic chemicals (e.g. Electrophoresis, Etbr).
- Eating or drinking is prohibited in the lab.
- Spills are immediately cleaned.
- Lab is equipped with safety equipment and everyone is aware of its location (E.g. Fire extinguishers and first aid supplies).
- Appropriate protection is used while working with UV light(eye protection, gloves, lab coat).
- Lab waste is properly disposed (E.g. Biological cultures are disposed after addition of ethanol to kill microorganisms; Solids are kept out of the sink; Agarose gel, gloves, the hazardous wastes are disposed separately in the biohazard coloured bin).