Team:Tianjin/Safety
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Although our project barely involves complex genetic pollution or the use of toxic reagents, our instructor still attaches great importance to the lab safety during the experiment. Before entering the lab, every operator must accept comprehensive training and have a deep understanding of equipment and reagents. All wastes are divided and gathered into special bottles, later get handled by professionals in a unified manner. In our activities like open day and program shooting, we also paid close attention on the safety of visitors and guided them to use the appliance correctly.
Safety Training
Before we start doing experiments, our teacher first held a systematic safety training, which contains the safe use of experimental apparatus and other laboratory safety rules. Only when we had qualified awareness of lab safety and security can we do the experiments ourselves.>
To ensure that everyone does the experiments in a safe and proper manner, our adviser set up a rule that everyone must complete the experiment under the supervision of another student. In this way, when there is a safety emergency, students can get immediate help from others.
We have weekly meetings to summarize the problems when doing experiments last week and came up with solutions. During the meetings, students would sum up the mistakes and remind each other of the safety precautions.
General laboratory safety
1.Equipment safety
Centrifuge: We should operate the centrifuge under the guidance of the operating manual. The centrifuge tube should be inspected for damage before use and to ensure that the centrifuge tube is sealed during centrifugation. We should balance the weight of the bucket before centrifugation. The empty bucket is supposed to be leveled with sterile water.
Freezer: we should clean the ice inside the freezer regularly. All objects contained in the freeze should be marked with its scientific name, date of storage and the storage people. We should list all things in the freezer.
High pressure steam sterilizer: Before Sterilization, we should confirm the water level in the sterilizer is safe. When sterilized, items should not be put too close.After sterilization, we can open the sterilizer only when its pressure has fell to 1atm.
Clean bench: It is forbidden to open the glass baffle during the use of the clean bench. During the operation, we should avoid the movement of his arm to reduce the airflow. After use, the items should be put back in place and the UV lamp should be turned on. Before leaving the laboratory, apply the appropriate disinfectant to wipe the surface of the clean bench.
2.Personal and operational safety
Before the experiment, we should carefully study the use of each instrument and get to know how to deal with the dangerous chemicals.
We should watch out during operation to avoid the failure of instrument and the consequent damage.
We must not eat or drink in the lab.
We should wear disposable gloves and avoid touching our mouth, eyes and face during operation.
It’s forbidden to take any instruments away from our laboratory.
Specific reagents safety
We set up a special room for gel electrophoresis and other similar toxic experiments. All things in this room are not allowed to be touched without protection or taken out. We investigate the hazardous reagents that may involve and the property information is posted in the lab:
The results of the acute toxicity test indicate that, in mice, guinea pigs, and rabbits, the LD50 is 150 to 180 mg/kg, which is a medium toxic substance. Animal studies have found that acrylamide can cause various tumors of organs in rats, including breast, thyroid, testicles, adrenal gland, central nervous system, mouth, uterus, pituitary gland and so on. In 1994, IARC evaluated its carcinogenicity, classifying acrylamide as a class 2 carcinogen (2A), a possible human carcinogen, mainly based on the fact that acrylamide can be metabolized into its carcinogenic active metabolite epoxy propanamide in both animals and humans.
Inflammable, volatile, corrosive, strong neurotoxicity, in order to avoid inhaling, it is supposed to use the rear cover to tighten the bottle cap.
It is irritant and corrosive to skin mucous membrane. Once inhaling ,it may cause rhinitis, laryngitis, shortness of breath and coughing. What’s more , it can cause intense irritation, pain and even burns after contact with eyes and skin. Oral administration causes abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. Long-term exposure to skin contact can cause allergic dermatitis.
It can stimulate mucosa and upper respiratory tract, as well as eye and skin. It also can cause allergic reaction of respiratory system.β-mercaptoethanol (BME)：Inhalation, ingestion or absorption of BME through the skin will be toxic. The symptoms include cyanosis, vomiting, tremor, headache, convulsions, coma, and even death. It also has strong irritation to eyes and skinwhich may cause corneal opacity.
Methanol toxicity has the greatest impact on the nervous system and blood system of the human body. It can cause toxic reactions through the digestive tract, respiratory tract or skin intake. Methanol vapor can damage the respiratory mucosa and eyesight of human. However, it is a low toxicity reagents.
It is irritant to nose, throat and respiratory tract after inhalation. It has a strong irritating effect on the eye. Its contact with skin can lead to erythema, even causing chemical burns.All toxic items mentioned above will be collected and specially treated.
