Team:Wageningen UR/HP/LabSafety

Lab Safety

Occupational safety is an important issue in companies and governments, even in administrative offices. Therefore, it is not a surprise that the safety measures followed in laboratories where biological samples are handled will have an important impact on the daily work of this environment.

Although safety is without a doubt an important issue, a survey carried out some years ago [1] showed that most lab workers considered their lab a safe environment, while showing at the same time that almost everyone was aware of serious lab accidents. This discrepancy shed light on the false sense of security that leads researchers to take biosafety in the lab too lightly.

Of course, not all the work carried out in laboratories has the same risk. This risk depends on the properties of the chemicals used, the pathogenicity of the microorganisms researched or the scale of experiments. In the case of the microorganisms, a classification determines the safety measures necessary for working with them. These measures are cumulative, for example, the measures taken in the ML-3 lab are those special for ML-3 labs plus those of ML-1 and ML-2 labs, as can be observed in the next figure.

Figure 1: We have made this figure with the intention of showing the most important features of each safety level, as depicted in the Laboratory Biosafety Manual developed by WHO [2].

Next you can find the rules that the workers in our university must follow to guarantee a safe work environment.

In our university, safety in the working environment is respected as an important issue. Every worker (including non-lab workers) must biennially attend general safety lectures, as well as participate in drills when necessary. The general safety measures in case of emergency, e.g. fire or chemical spill, are the following:

  • When aware of an emergency, we must call a security number that put us in contact with the receptionist of the building. After we explain who we are, what has happened and where, they will get in touch with the Emergency Response Team. The Emergency Response Team comprises technicians trained in diverse skills, such as first aid, handling gas leaks, or controlling firefighting equipment.
  • When observing smoke coming out from a machine, the equipment should be unplugged and a technician should be informed. This situation will not lead to an emergency evacuation.
  • In case of hearing the fire alarm, we must stop our activities and head out of the building immediately, gathering in the evacuation point. Keep calm and do not run during the evacuation. We should only take our personal belongings if they are in our immediate reach, so we do not deviate from the emergency route out. Of course, do not use the elevator.
  • When accessing the building outside office hours, we have to register in the reception, so emergency response workers know who is in the building in case of emergency.

Before starting to work in the lab, every student is asked to attend an introductory tour, for which we first have to learn the safety rules and complete a test. Besides these general safety rules, workers in the labs are at higher risk, and therefore they must follow a set of rules. The safety measures followed in our lab are in accordance to those presented in the Laboratory Biosafety Manual released by the WHO [2].

  • Never use an equipment or a technique that you have not been instructed to use.
  • When working in the lab, always wear a lab coat, glasses, and closed shoes.
    • Change used lab coats for clean ones every three weeks.
    • Lab coats are forbidden in elevators and the canteen.
  • Check the SDS (Safety Data Sheet) of chemicals before using them, in order to identify possible hazards and take the necessary measures.
    • Work in the fume hood with toxic or corrosive chemicals.
    • Extraction arms can be used as a substitute for fume hood, but only for small-scale experiments, due to its lesser capacity.
    • Use nitrile gloves when using dangerous chemicals.
  • Long hair should be tied together.
  • No eating, drinking, smoking or running in the lab.
  • Wash hands before and especially after working with bacteria.
  • Keep your bench as empty, clean and sterile as possible.
  • Samples must be labeled correctly so they can be traced back to the owner.
  • Never walk in the -20°C room alone, or at least without anyone's awareness.
  • Never work alone in the lab outside office hours, to make sure someone is there to assist in case of an accident.
  • In case of a chemical spill, use one of the emergency showers present in the corridor.
  • In case of a spill on the eyes, use one of the eyewash bottles present in each lab. They have volume enough to allow you to reach the eyewash station present in the main corridor.
  • Dispose of the waste in the proper containers. Chemical waste in blue containers, and biological waste in metal containers. The content of the metal container will be autoclaved.

Our laboratory has an ML-2 laboratory. This space is design to handle dangerous samples, such as pathogenic bacteria or samples that might be contaminated (human and animal samples or wastewater from treatment plants). Although we are not working with dangerous samples, this lab is also used for the use of bacteriophages, due to the threat that they pose to other experiments carried out in the other laboratories. The workers in this lab must complete a theoretical and practical test to ensure that they have the necessary skills for maintaining a safe environment in the ML-2 lab, as well as outside the lab. The workers are also vaccinated for tetanus, hepatitis A, and hepatitis B. A number of special rules must be followed in the ML-2 lab:

  • All activities dealing with pathogenic organisms are done in a Laminar Air Flow cabinet, wearing gloves.
  • Hands are always washed before leaving the ML-2 lab.
  • Book enough time for the ML-2 lab, to not work in a hurry.
  • Never work in the ML-2 lab with a headache or when not feeling well, as it requires a high level of concentration. Avoid carrying a phone inside the ML-2 lab, as it is a distraction.
  • Clean with halamid (biocide and DNA remover) all the items that will leave the ML-2 lab after using them.
  • All the waste is disposed of in a medical waste bin in a careful way so no traces of sample are released into the lab environment.

References

  1. Van Noorden, N. "Safety Survey reveals lab risks" Nature 493 (2013): 9-10
  2. World Health Organization "Laboratory Biosafety Manual. Third Edition.", Geneva (2004)