Team:UCL E/Safety

From 2013.igem.org

Revision as of 00:03, 29 October 2013 by Zcbths3 (Talk | contribs)

Contents

Biosafety

Although the manipulation of DNA does not involve the use of live organisms, the utmost care must still be taken with all reagents and equipment in order to minimise the risk to the user and avoid any potential damage to the environment. The follow Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs) describe the various hazards associated with the reagents used with Darwin Toolbox, and the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and Risk Assessment for use of the different modules within the toolbox can be found.

Material Safety Data Sheets

Hyper Ladder https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/1/1f/Ucl_e_HyperLadder_MSDS.pdf

Electrical Safety

One of the key non-functional requirements during the design of our prototype were safety aspects of the device. This table gives an overview of the hazards we took into consideration and the steps required to prevent accidents.

Hazards

Industry Regulations and Safety Requirements

To manufacture electrical equipment in the UK, we must meet the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1994 which covers all equipment designed for the workplace and domestic electrical equipment. Our responsibility as the manufacturer is to ensure the Darwin Toolbox meets the safety requirements, and declaring this with 3 key components:

  • Technical documentation
  • a European Conformity Declaration of Conformity
  • a European Conformity (CE) mark

For more detailed information, see our Manufacturing page.


Technology Misuse

Our project raises concerns that our technology could be used by hostile groups, similar to the iGEM CU Boulder project. All the equipment our laboratory kit provides is already accessible via online retail outlets.