Team:Example C/Safety/Goodenough

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Latest revision as of 13:37, 19 March 2014

"Good Enough" version of the template for the Safety page on the team wikis. It requires ~zero programmer effort.

Dear Teams,

Please read the Safety Instructions for an overall description of what you must do.

This page contains the Overall Safety Questions, which every team must complete. You should begin working on these questions at the start of summer. You should complete an Early Version of this page by 30 June, and the Final Version by 31 August. When your Overall Safety Questions are ready for our Early or Final review, complete this submission form to notify us, so we can review your answers. (If you change your answers to the Overall Safety Questions, you may complete the submission form again at any time, even after the deadlines.)

Overall Safety Questions

1. Your Lab

• Does your country uses a four-part Biosafety Level rating system for laboratories? If so, what rating is the most dangerous, and what rating is the least dangerous? What is the Biosafety Level rating of your lab? If you use separate lab areas for different procedures, what is the Biosafety Level rating of each area?

The USA has four Biosafety Levels, with BSL1 the least dangerous and BSL4 the most dangerous. Our lab is BSL1. We have access to a shared BSL2 area, which we use for mammalian cell culture. We do bacterial work in BSL1.

• Do you handle biological materials on an open bench top, or do you use a containment device (such as a laminar flow hood, biosafety cabinet, or glove box)? If you handle different materials in different places, please describe what materials you handle where.

We handle bacteria (E. coli K12) and DNA on an open bench top. We do mammalian cell culture in laminar flow hoods.

• What personal protective equipment do you use in the lab? (For example: gloves, lab coats, safety goggles.) If you use different protective equipment for different procedures, please describe what equipment you use in what situations.

We always wear lab coats and gloves. We wear safety goggles when doing mammalian cell culture.

• How do you dispose of biological waste? (For example: liquid cell cultures, agar plates, pipette tips.)

Liquid waste is sterilized with bleach and poured down the drain. Solid waste is picked up by our university's lab safety office, and ultimately incinerated.

2. Your Training

• Have your team members received any laboratory safety training yet? If your training is planned for the future, approximately when will you receive it?
• Please describe the things you have learned (or will learn) in your safety training.
• Please give a link to the laboratory safety training requirements of your college/university/institution.

3. Your Local Rules and Regulations

• Who is responsible for biological safety at your college/university/institution? (You might have an Institutional Biosafety Committee, an Office of Environmental Health and Safety, a single Biosafety Officer, or some other arrangement.) Have you discussed your project with them? Describe any concerns they raised, and any changes you made in your project based on your discussion.
• Please give a link to the biosafety guidelines of your university. If you cannot give a link, please describe the guidelines.
• What are the national biosafety regulations for your country? Please give a link to these regulations, or briefly describe them if you cannot give a link.

4. The Organisms and Parts that You Use

Please complete the table in the Excel file (available at [URL]) to list all organisms and new or modified sequences (parts) you intend to use, even if they will not be present in your final project. For help determining Risk Group, please see Risk Group Help. The Excel file is titled TeamName_OverallList_00 . Please replace “TeamName” with your team’s name, and “00” with the number version of your table you are uploading (01, 02, etc.). Then click here to upload your file.

• REPLACE THIS LINE WITH A LINK TO YOUR UPLOADED EXCEL FILE

Columns of the Excel table:

• Species / species from which part originally comes, and strain number/name
• Risk Group (using DSMZ source; if your organism is not there, cite your source in Notes column. If you can find no Risk Group designation, write 'NA' and explain in Notes column.)
• Disease risk to humans? If yes, please explain/specify.
• Part number (if part)
• Function in its parent organism (if part)
• How did/will you acquire the organism/part?
• What you will use the organism/part for?
• Notes

(You must also complete an Eligible Organism Application before acquiring any organism/part that is not exempt; see Exemption List.)

5. Risks of Your Project Now

Please describe any risks of working with the biological materials (cells, organisms, DNA, etc.) that you are using in your project. Even if you are working safely, please discuss possible risks rather than simply saying that there are no risks at all.

• Risks to the safety and health of team members, or other people working in the lab
• Risks to the safety and health of the general public (if any biological materials escaped from your lab)
• Risks to the environment (if any biological materials escaped from your lab)
• Risks to security through malicious misuse by individuals, groups, or countries
• What measures are you taking to minimize these risks? (For example: safe lab practices, choices of which organisms to use, features of your project design.)

6. Risks of Your Project in the Future

What would happen if all your dreams came true, and your project grew from a small lab study into a commercial/industrial/medical product that was used by many people? To answer this question, we invite you to speculate broadly and discuss possibilities, rather than providing definite answers. Even if the product is "safe", please discuss possible risks and how they could be addressed rather than simply saying that there are no risks at all. This question to be reworded with input from P&P judges

• What new risks might arise? (Consider the categories of risk listed in the previous question: lab workers, the general public, the environment, and malicious mis-uses.) Also, what risks might arise if the knowledge you generate or the methods you develop became widely available?
• Does your project include any design features to mitigate risks? Or, if your project became widely used, would you plan to include new design features to mitigate risks? (For example: auxotrophic chassis, physical containment, etc.) Such features are not required for an iGEM project, but many teams choose to explore them.