Difference between revisions of "Team:IIT Kharagpur/Safety"

The Department of Biotechnology, IIT Kharagpur focuses on safe working with biological materials - for both human beings and the environment. We, the iGEM IIT Kharagpur take special pride in our disciplined and regimented laboratory guidelines when it comes to safety from biohazard. Biological materials, in general include genetically modified organisms (GMO), biological agents, plant pathogens/quarantine material and animal by-products. The misuse or the spread of these materials without proper human intervention is what causes a potential biohazard or at a large scale, a bio-disaster! Therefore, strict emphasis on restriction or limitation of these materials is required when they are directly hazardous to humans, animals or plants. In all cases, the researcher, lecturer, student or third party is consciously working with material that may have hazardous effects of which the person is not always aware in advance. In such cases it is necessary to ask advice of the biosafety officer in order to be able to work safely with the material and in order to meet applicable laws and regulations.

Our laboratories are all under the keen supervision of expert personnel (Both professor and maintenance staff) at IIT Kharagpur. All of our safety guidelines are as per norms of Department of Biotechnology, India. Link to General laboratory safety guidelines. Accordingly our lab has been issued a biosafety level 1 by Government of India since it involves a non pathogenic strain of E. coli and involves standard recombinant DNA technology procedures.

1. All eatables and beverages are strictly prohibited inside the laboratory.
2. Regular drills in fire escape and use of fire extinguishers. Emergency first aid box kit is always kept at easily accessible to hand places and is equipped with treatment for small cuts, burns and chemical spills. All members are trained in basic first aid skills.
3. Reusable and non reusable equipments are kept distinguish from each other and all the lab members take regular turn in disposing of waste materials in a sound scientific manner.
4. Wear laboratory coats and other appropriate protective clothing while performing laboratory activities. Feet and legs should be covered; sandals and open-toed shoes should not be worn in laboratories. Wear appropriate gloves while handling infectious or toxic materials and animals. Do not wear lab coats. Gloves or other personal protective equipment outside the laboratory.
5. Use a biological safety cabinet for handling infectious materials or materials requiring protection from contamination and a fume hood for toxic materials; mixed hazards need to be evaluated case by case.
6. Fume hoods should be used for laboratory activities that could result in chemical explosions or fires, for experiments involving toxic, hazardous or carcinogenic compounds and use of strong acids and bases. Biological safety cabinets should not be used for this kind of work.
7. Chemical and radioactive waste must not be poured down the drain. Learn the proper handling of all chemical substances before using them. In case of uncertainty ask a senior member to supervise your activities.
8. All materials should be kept at their proper positions after their use has been concluded. An alternate facility is maintained in case of regular storage rooms, fridges etc. are repaired or moved.
9. Never mouth pipettes anything. Use mechanical pipetting devices only!
10. Decontaminate all work surfaces daily, and decontaminate all spills immediately.
11. Decontaminate (by autoclaving or chemical disinfection) all biologically contaminated materials – glassware, animal cages, laboratory equipment, etc. – before washing, reuse or disposal. Discard materials via proper waste stream.
12. Syringes, needles, pipettes, etc, should be placed in rigid, leak-proof containers (Sharps Safe) and discarded following the waste rules.
13. Broken glassware and disposable pipettes (after decontamination) should be placed in a “Disposable Lab ware and Broken Glass Box” and discarded following the waste rules.
14. Wash your hands after handling chemicals, infectious materials, animals, after removing gloves and before leaving the laboratory.
15. The Biological waste is divided into two categories and handled accordingly:

• Liquid waste with biological factors is autoclaved and thereafter disposed of as hazardous waste in accordance with "Guideline for disposal of hazardous waste and problematic waste, ionizing sources of radiation and explosive waste.
  
• Solid waste is autoclaved and treated as residual waste if it does not contain chemical residues.

Biosafety at the workplace i.e our laboratory, for the working staff, the general population and finally, the environment is our top priority and is achieved by proper containment of biologically and chemically hazardous agents. Containment is ensured at research stage, when modifications are made, development work in the laboratory, greenhouse or growth room, The only risks involved are for those working in the laboratory and containment parameters are devised to ensure that the organism would not escape into the environment, or if it should, it would have been so designed not to survive in the open. All the handling of cell culture, bacterial colonies are carried out under laminar hood. The work bench, hood and hands of active members are washed both prior and after the laboratory work is done with rectified ethanol spirit. All the cell culture colonies are tightly wrapped with parafilm and maintained at 4 degree Celsius when not in use.

Since our prototype organism is an E. coli DH5-alpha strain, a product from MCLAB, we took a printout of manufacturer provided safety instructions for handling the strain and pasted near the workbench so that it is always in the view of all the working members. An e-version of the transcript can be found here.

E.coli DH5-alpha strains are Ampicillin and Chloramphenicol resistant. We need to treat them with antibiotics other than these or in concentration more than 100 microgram/ml of Ampicillin and 34 microgram/ml Chloramphenicol in order to contain the strain.