Team:IIT Delhi/Safety

Our team undergone a long laboratory training and learned about Biological Safety & Environmental Health

Please briefly describe the topics that you learned about (or will learn about) in your safety training.

• Dealing with chemicals
• Managing waste products
• Training in case of emergencies (fire outbreak etc.)
• Personal safety in lab (lab coat , gloves , gas mask)
• Working with microbes

Please give a link to the laboratory safety training requirements of your institution (college, university, community lab, etc.). Or, if you cannot give a link, briefly describe the requirements.

• Proper handling of chemicals
• Using fire extinguishers
• Handling laboratory equipment (autoclave etc.)
• Personal safety in lab

Who is responsible for biological safety at your 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.

• 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? Please give a link to these guidelines, or briefly describe them if you cannot give a link.

• 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? (Consider the categories of risk listed in parts a-d of the previous question: 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.

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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.) Such features are not required for an iGEM project, but many teams choose to explore them.

• 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.