Team:TecCEM/Safety
Safety
Lab work and project safety have to be carefully measured and taken precariously by everyone involved while conducting experiments. Most precautions have to be carried out taking note of all the safety protocols concerned.
Since all our parts were designed to be specific and effective toward cell lines, the only precautions taken were level 1 for safety measures. All the strains used come from E. coli strain and were inactivated as the safety protocols indicate.
General lab safety for ourselves
For our own safety, prior to beginning any lab work, a brief introduction to all the safety protocols was given. A quick course of lab equipment manipulation and lab responsibility was taken by all the team members, helping to give a brief introduction to working in a lab for those that hadn’t worked before in one and as a reinforcement for the others.
As a level 1 in biosafety, the right safety protocols were learned and revised. This was done to assure that the right decontamination and disposal of materials were being carried out, the right protective equipment was being used and all the standard lab rules were being followed as indicated by our laboratory technicians.
Our laboratory has the standard safety equipment such as emergency showers, eyewash, fire detectors, fire extinguisher, security sheets, waste disposal, autoclaving, laminar flux bells, and glove dispenser. We always made sure to wear the right lab equipment such as lab coats, glasses, closed shoes, gloves, the right clothing, and tied hair.
Protecting the environment protocols
We have a responsibility to take care of the environment. For our experiments, the use of antibiotics for selection had to be carefully disposed of with the right protocols.
Some of the antibiotics used were: kanamycin and chloramphenicol. The safety sheet for chloramphenicol these compound can cause respiratory problems, it’s hazardous for ingestion and causes germ cell mutagenicity, reproductive toxicity and aspiration hazard all of level 1 category.