Team:IIT Delhi/Safety

Our team undergone a long laboratory training and learned about Biological Safety & Environmental Health
A brief description of the topics that we learned about in your safety training:

• ✔ Dealing with chemicals-precautions which we should take while handling hazardous chemicals like ethidium bromide etc and also our test gases Oxides of Nitrogen, Sulfur and Hydrogen Sulfide.
• ✔ Managing waste products-During everyday lab work a huge amount of waste is generated so we learned proper methods of disposing them like proper disposal of used/unused media plates etc.
• ✔ Training in case of emergencies (fire outbreak etc.)- We learned how to operate a fire extinguisher and how to use a standard FIRST-AID kit.
• ✔ Personal safety in lab(lab coat , gloves , gas mask)- All the lab work was done under supervision of lab advisors with proper safety measurements.
• ✔ Working with microbes- We followed standard safety guideline while working: Safety Guidelines

Here is a link to the laboratory safety training requirements of our institution

• ✔ Institute Safety Requirements

Who is responsible for biological safety at our institution?

• ✔ We have institutional biosafety committee where we have Director IIT Delhi as chairman and Dr. Preeti Srivastava as convener.

What are the biosafety guidelines of your institution?

• http://dbtindia.nic.in/uniquepage.asp?ID_PK=112

Risks to the safety and health of team members, or other people working in the lab

• ✔ Exposure to UV
• ✔ Exposure to harmful gases like NOx and SOx
• ✔ Exposure to Ethidium Bromide
• ✔ Handling strong acids and reagents

Risks to the safety and health of the general public (if any biological materials escaped from your lab:

• ✔ Biological waste that is generated
• ✔ Exposure to the harmful gases

Risks to the environment (from waste disposal, or from materials escaping from your lab

• ✔ Release of NOx and SOx leading to air pollution
• ✔ Improper disposal of waste might lead to soil and water pollution

What measures are you taking to reduce these risks? (For example: safe lab practices, choices of which organisms to use.)

• ✔ Regular safety trainings (both at laboratory and personal ) are given by our safety experts and faculty (especially Dr.Preeti Srivastava heading biological safety at IIT Delhi)
• ✔ Segregation of organic and inorganic waste followed by proper handling and disposal.

What new risks might arise from your project's growth? ( We considered the categories of risk listed in parts of the previous questions: lab workers, the general public, the environment, and malicious misuses.) Also, what risks might arise if the knowledge you generate or the methods you develop became widely available?

• ✔ Faulty immobilization may lead to the outbreak of a recombinant strain in the environment
• ✔ Possible increase in the levels of ammonia and particulate sulfur in the environment.

Does your project currently include any design features to reduce risks? Or, if you did all the future work to make your project grow into a popular product, would you plan to design any new features to minimize risks? (For example: auxotrophic chassis, physical containment, etc.)

• ✔ Immobilization will be carried out on beads with positive zeta potential and would hence avoid any outbreak of the bacteria , also particulate sulfur will be deposited in the model itself thereby avoiding any leakage.
• ✔ Our device is equipped with a pressure control meter which will cut down the input of extra gas into the bioreactor and it also has a control valve which will open to release the excess gas inside.