Difference between revisions of "Team:Cambridge-JIC/Safety"

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             <h1>Introduction</h1>
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             <h1>Safety</h1>
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Safety is of course an important concern in any synthetic biology project. There already exist strict laws and regulations in most countries regarding development and handling of genetically engineered organisms in order to prevent them from causing harm to people or the environment, and it is vital that any iGEM team not put itself or others at risk through its work.
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Choosing a project in the Hardware track allows our team to largely sidestep any safety issues associated with genetic engineering: our project involves little actual DNA manipulation in living organisms, and the small amount that we have done is more or less quite minor and routine. Still, we have adopted a number of practices to ensure that our project poses minimal risk to any person or property.
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<div style="float:right"> <img src="//2015.igem.org/wiki/images/e/ea/CamJIC-health_and_safety.jpg" style="height:320px;margin:10px"> <p style="font-size:80%"> Note: Do not do this at the lab or home </p> </div>
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It is vital that any iGEM team not put itself or others at any risk through its work. The Hardware track has fewer associated safety risks than would be found in a purely biological project. In fact, our project involved significantly fewer transformations and much less handling of biological materials than a typical iGEM project. Nevertheless, we considered any possible risks that our project could pose and adopted a number of practices in order to minimise these.
 
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            <h1>What security issues does our project have?</h1>
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<i>The nature of our project makes it inherently impossible for anyone, even with malicious intentions, to cause harm to others or the environment.</i>
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A microscope such as the one we have developed has very few safety concerns. Microscopy is a well-established field, dating back hundreds of years, and techniques for it are common practice and ensure safety. Fluorescence microscopy is little different.
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Some fluorescent compounds require UV light in order to excite them to emit radiation. UV light is potentially harmful to the eyes and skin if not used with caution, and should be handled carefully. However, the wavelength of UV light used (395 nm) is well above the wavelength considered most harmful to humans, around 260-270nm [1], and the power of the LEDs used is fairly low. Any UV radiation a user would normally be exposed to while using our microscope would be significantly less intense than that of sunlight, so this was not considered a serious safety issue.
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The biological side of the project involved fairly standard, routine transformations with fluorescent proteins in order to test our equipment. Marchantia, the transformed plant we imaged, is a common weed which poses no threat to humans. Its transformation merely led it to express RFP, which does not make the plant harmful to humans or the ecosystem. The vector used to transform the plant, Agrobacterium, is an agricultural pest which inserts plasmids into plant cells and usually does not cause any harm in humans. Transforming it to insert RFP plasmids did not make it any more dangerous or competitive in the environment.
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The nature of our project makes it inherently impossible for anyone, even with malicious intentions, to use it to harm others or the environment.
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            <h1>How secure is our lab?</h1>
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All of our work took place in the Teaching Lab at the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge. This lab is GM-certified, meaning that it was designed with work on genetically modified organisms in place. For examples, its windows cannot be opened so that any organisms developed within it cannot escape through that route.
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The lab is certified for biosafety level 1, meaning that it can only be used to handle biological agents which are harmless to individuals and to the public.
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             <h1>What safety practices have we adopted?</h1>
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Safety was high in our minds while we were selecting our project. Several ideas were discarded during our brainstorming sessions at the start of the project because they wouldn’t be safe enough.
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We were all given a lab induction and a safety briefing before we were allowed to handle any potentially dangerous materials. All of the department’s safety policies were explained to us and we were introduced to the departmental safety officer.
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All standard laboratory procedures were followed at all times. Lab coats were worn at all times while doing any wet work and all was cleaned before leaving the lab. The hazard level of any waste was evaluated before disposing of it appropriately. Of course, all relevant laws and regulations regarding biosafety were followed and were generally part of our normal lab procedures.
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             <h3>Safety concerns in our Project</h3>
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<h4><b>Lighting</b></h4>
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Some fluorescent molecules require UV light in order to excite them. UV light can be potentially harmful to the eyes and skin if not used with caution. In the project only near-UV LEDs are used, which have a peak in emission at 395nm and are considered safe, as this lies out of the range of 260-270nm [1], which is most harmful to humans. Regardless, all LEDs in the final design of OpenScope are contained within the plastic casing, so the user would not come into contact with any direct light. </p>
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<h4><b>Electronics</b></h4>
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OpenScope is a digital microscope, and as such is based on a number of electronics: Raspberry Pi, Raspberry Pi camera, Arduino, stepper motors, etc. The Arduino and the Raspberry Pi boards have 5V/2A power supplies, or alternmatively can be plugged into 9V batteries. These components are to be handled as typical home electronic devices. Detailed wiring instructions are available on the <a href="//2015.igem.org/Team:Cambridge-JIC/Make_Your_Own" class="blue">Make Your Own</a> page to ensure that any potential users do not misuse the equipment.
 
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             <h1>References</h1>
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[1] International program on chemical safety, “Environmental health criteria 160 - Ultraviolet radiation,” World Health Organization 1994, http://www.inchem.org/documents/ehc/ehc/ehc160.htm.
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<h4><b>Biological</b></h4>
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<p>
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The biological side of our project involves standard, routine transformations with fluorescent proteins. For testing of some of our equipment pre-transformed, GFP-expressing <i>Marchantia polymorpha</i> was provided to us. However, as part of our collaboration with the William and Mary iGEM team, we carried out transformations of <i>E.coli</i>. We did this following the same protocol as them and following standard safety procedures. For more information see our <a href="//2015.igem.org/Team:Cambridge-JIC/Collaborations" class="blue">Collaborations Page</a>.
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    <th class="tg-031e">Organism used<br></th>
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    <th class="tg-031e">Biosafety level<br></th>
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    <th class="tg-031e">Risk assessment</th>
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    <td class="tg-031e"><i>Marchantia polymorpha</i></td>
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    <td class="tg-031e">Level 1</td>
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    <td class="tg-031e">No individual or community risk</td>
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    <td class="tg-031e"><i>Escherichia coli</i> K12</td>
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    <td class="tg-031e">Level 1</td>
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    <td class="tg-031e">No individual or community risk</td>
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<h4><b>Glass Cutting</b></h4>
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Glass cutting was carried out to adapt the shape of dichroic mirrors to fit within the epicube that we designed for fluorescence microscopy. Precautions were taken to ensure that small fragments of glass do not come into contact with eyes or skin. Glass cutting was carried out on a large tray, preventing stray glass fragments being left around the lab; safety glasses, two pairs of gloves and a lab coat were worn at all times when cutting glass. Risk assessments were completed for the activity and students were supervised by the first-aider on hand. These can be found below (note: signatures were removed from the forms for privacy reasons). </p>
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<p>In the final design of the epicube, the mirrors are incorporated into plastic drawers, so the user does not come in direct contact with any pieces of glass.</p>
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<div style="width:15%;float:right">
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<a class="btn btn-default" href="//2015.igem.org/wiki/images/d/d1/CamJIC-Glass_Cutting_Risk_Assessment.pdf" role="button" style="color:#123a68;border-color:#123a68">risk assessment</a>
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             <h3>How secure is our lab?</h3>
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             <p>
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<p>Our work took place in the Teaching Lab, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge. The lab is GM certified and biosafety level 1 certified, and so is designed with safety precautions in place for working with genetically modified organisms.</p>
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<br>
 +
</br>
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            <h3>What safety practices have we adopted?</h3>
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            <p>
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Safety was a high priority when selecting a project to work on. Due to safety concerns several project ideas were discarded during brainstorming. Before carrying out any lab work we were given an extensive safety briefing and lab induction by the departmental safety officer. Standard laboratory procedures were followed at all times. Correct equipment was worn when doing any wet lab work. Cleaning and disposal of equipment was carried out appropriately by considering the hazard level associated. All relevant laws and regulations regarding biosafety were followed.
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<h3>Outreach day</h3>
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<a class="btn btn-default" href="//2015.igem.org/wiki/images/0/0f/CamJIC-Arduino_workshop_Risk_Assessment.pdf" role="button" style="color:#123a68;border-color:#123a68">Arduino risk assessment</a>
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<br><br>
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<a class="btn btn-default" href="//2015.igem.org/wiki/images/b/b4/CamJIC-microscopy_workshop_Risk_Assessment.pdf" role="button" style="color:#123a68;border-color:#123a68">Microscopy risk assessment</a>
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<br><br>
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<a class="btn btn-default" href="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/d/db/CamJIc-coshh.pdf" role="button" style="color:#123a68;border-color:#123a68">COSHH</a>
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The team hosted an Outreach day on the 11th of September for secondary school students from Cambridge and the surrounding area. A total of 18 students, supervised by their teachers, were invited to participate in two workshops organised by the team. For more information on the Outreach day, visit our <a href="https://2015.igem.org/Team:Cambridge-JIC/Outreach" class="blue">Outreach</a> Page.  We completed risk assessments for all activities and supervised the students at all times. These can be found below (note: signatures were removed from the forms for privacy reasons).
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<h4>References</h4>
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<p style="font-size:80%">
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[1] International program on chemical safety, “Environmental health criteria 160 - Ultraviolet radiation,” World Health Organization 1994, <a href="http://www.inchem.org/documents/ehc/ehc/ehc160.htm" class="blue">http://www.inchem.org/documents/ehc/ehc/ehc160.htm</a>.
 
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Latest revision as of 01:15, 19 September 2015

CAMBRIDGE-JIC

Safety



Note: Do not do this at the lab or home

It is vital that any iGEM team not put itself or others at any risk through its work. The Hardware track has fewer associated safety risks than would be found in a purely biological project. In fact, our project involved significantly fewer transformations and much less handling of biological materials than a typical iGEM project. Nevertheless, we considered any possible risks that our project could pose and adopted a number of practices in order to minimise these.

The nature of our project makes it inherently impossible for anyone, even with malicious intentions, to cause harm to others or the environment.





Safety concerns in our Project

Lighting

Some fluorescent molecules require UV light in order to excite them. UV light can be potentially harmful to the eyes and skin if not used with caution. In the project only near-UV LEDs are used, which have a peak in emission at 395nm and are considered safe, as this lies out of the range of 260-270nm [1], which is most harmful to humans. Regardless, all LEDs in the final design of OpenScope are contained within the plastic casing, so the user would not come into contact with any direct light.


Electronics

OpenScope is a digital microscope, and as such is based on a number of electronics: Raspberry Pi, Raspberry Pi camera, Arduino, stepper motors, etc. The Arduino and the Raspberry Pi boards have 5V/2A power supplies, or alternmatively can be plugged into 9V batteries. These components are to be handled as typical home electronic devices. Detailed wiring instructions are available on the Make Your Own page to ensure that any potential users do not misuse the equipment.


Biological

The biological side of our project involves standard, routine transformations with fluorescent proteins. For testing of some of our equipment pre-transformed, GFP-expressing Marchantia polymorpha was provided to us. However, as part of our collaboration with the William and Mary iGEM team, we carried out transformations of E.coli. We did this following the same protocol as them and following standard safety procedures. For more information see our Collaborations Page.


Organism used
 Biosafety level
 Risk assessment
Marchantia polymorpha Level 1 No individual or community risk
Escherichia coli K12 Level 1 No individual or community risk

Glass Cutting

Glass cutting was carried out to adapt the shape of dichroic mirrors to fit within the epicube that we designed for fluorescence microscopy. Precautions were taken to ensure that small fragments of glass do not come into contact with eyes or skin. Glass cutting was carried out on a large tray, preventing stray glass fragments being left around the lab; safety glasses, two pairs of gloves and a lab coat were worn at all times when cutting glass. Risk assessments were completed for the activity and students were supervised by the first-aider on hand. These can be found below (note: signatures were removed from the forms for privacy reasons).

In the final design of the epicube, the mirrors are incorporated into plastic drawers, so the user does not come in direct contact with any pieces of glass.



How secure is our lab?

Our work took place in the Teaching Lab, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge. The lab is GM certified and biosafety level 1 certified, and so is designed with safety precautions in place for working with genetically modified organisms.



What safety practices have we adopted?

Safety was a high priority when selecting a project to work on. Due to safety concerns several project ideas were discarded during brainstorming. Before carrying out any lab work we were given an extensive safety briefing and lab induction by the departmental safety officer. Standard laboratory procedures were followed at all times. Correct equipment was worn when doing any wet lab work. Cleaning and disposal of equipment was carried out appropriately by considering the hazard level associated. All relevant laws and regulations regarding biosafety were followed.


Outreach day

Arduino risk assessment

Microscopy risk assessment

COSHH

The team hosted an Outreach day on the 11th of September for secondary school students from Cambridge and the surrounding area. A total of 18 students, supervised by their teachers, were invited to participate in two workshops organised by the team. For more information on the Outreach day, visit our Outreach Page. We completed risk assessments for all activities and supervised the students at all times. These can be found below (note: signatures were removed from the forms for privacy reasons).


References

[1] International program on chemical safety, “Environmental health criteria 160 - Ultraviolet radiation,” World Health Organization 1994, http://www.inchem.org/documents/ehc/ehc/ehc160.htm.