Safety

Pretty much everything in a lab can be a risk if not handled properly. Dangerous chemicals, equipment and microorganisms all pose a risk to human health if not handled and disposed of correctly. Safety in and outside of the lab is something we as a team valued very highly and here follows a description on how we took measures to make our lab environment as safe as possible.

General lab safety

Almost everyone in our team have lab experience and has gone through the safety procedures multiple times and also have general knowledge on what is known as “Good laboratory practice”. This didn’t stop us from having a thorough safety instruction at the beginning of this year’s iGEM. This meant reviewing proper waste disposal, fire safety and emergency exits, biosafety, proper handling of chemicals and materials and last but not least, handling bacterium and other microorganisms and how to protect yourself and other while working with them. The general lab safety was an ongoing theme throughout the summer as we handled dangerous chemicals as we went along. When a new chemical or the like was introduced the safety measures on how to handle it were supposed to be addressed as well.

Dangers when working with microorganisms

In our lab we were only allowed to work with bacterium with safety class 1. If we needed to work with any organism with a higher safety class we had to take our work elsewhere. Any organism we took in to the lab had to be cleared with Margaretha Krabbe. The bacterium we mainly used in this project was the Escherischa coli DH5α. This particular organism is a class 1 bacterium and non-pathogenic to humans. We still took safety precautions when handling the DH5α, such as always wearing a labcoat when in the lab and using gloves and goggles when they were needed. This also included sterilizing the work benches with 70% ethanol both before and after every procedure to avoid growth and further contamination. Although the harmful effects to humans is limited with this particular strain of E.coli you still run a risk of spreading antibiotic-resistance from the plasmids used in iGEM to other bacterium if you don’t take these safety precautions. Therefor all waste that contained bacteria was treated with jodopax, an iodine based disinfectant, before being discarded.

Dangerous chemicals

• BaP-Benzo(a)pyrene. This is considered a molecular PAH and consist of five aromatic rings. It forms when a benzene ring fuses with pyrene and is the result of incomplete combustion. It metabolites are mutagenic and highly carcinogenic. Because of this BaP couldn’t be handled in our lab but were handled in a lab with higher safety precautions.

• CTAB-Cetyl-trimethylammoniumbromide. CTAB is an amine based cationic quaternary surfactant. This compound contains bromide and therefore should be handled with care. According to the MSDS from Sigma-Aldrich it can cause irritation when it comes in contact with skin and because of that it was always handled with gloves and goggles and since inhalation can cause damages to the lungs it was always handled in a fume hood. When the plates containing CTAB were to be disposed of, a special waste bucket was used. When the chemical was not used it was kept in a safety locker.

• Naphthalene- Naphthalene is an organic compound made up of two aromatic rings. Since this compound is flammable it was always kept in a fume hood when used. When not used it was always kept in the flameproof locker. Naphthalene is harmful when consumed and is suspected to cause cancer and was always handled with gloves and caution. Since it’s very harmful to water living organisms it was disposed of in a separate container and taken care of by the university.

• Salicylate- This compound is consists of sodium salt and salicylic acid. It can be harmful when consumed and can cause serious irritation to the eyes and skin and so it was always handled with gloves and goggles. When diluted it was kept in a cold room on a specific shelf.