Team:Goettingen/notebook safety

About Our Lab Form (Due on June 23rd - Monday)

1. a) Does your country use a four-part "Safety Level" rating system for laboratories? (The system might be called in English "Risk Levels", "Bio-Safety Levels", "Containment Levels", "Bio-Security Levels", or some similar name.)
If yes, which level is used for the most dangerous organisms?

• Yes. Level 4 is used for the most dangerous organisms. (True for most countries in Asia, the European Union, and North/South America. This is equivalent to the WHO system.)
• Yes. Level 1 is used for the most dangerous organisms. (True for some countries, especially those that were formerly part of the Soviet Union.)
• No, our country uses a different system (please describe the system here):
• We don't know which system our country uses (please comment):

b) What is the Safety Level of your lab? (Use the WHO numbering system, in which Level 4 is used for the most dangerous organisms).

• Level 1 (low risk, ~= WHO BSL 1)
• Level 2 (moderate risk, ~= WHO BSL 2)
• Level 3 (high risk, ~= WHO BSL 3)
• Level 4 (extreme risk, ~= WHO BSL 4)
• Our team is not doing any wet-lab work (e.g. Policy & Practices Track, some teams in Software Track)
• Other safety level (please describe):
• We have several different lab spaces with different Safety Levels (please describe what procedures you do in each space):
• We don't know the Safety Level of our lab (please comment):

2. a) What type of work environments do you use to handle biological materials? Please check all that apply.

• Open benches
• Laminar flow hood / biosafety cabinet with open front
• "Glove box" / biosafety cabinet with closed front
• Our team is not doing any wet-lab work (e.g. Policy & Practices Track, some teams in Software Track)
• Other work environment (please describe):
• We do not the name of the work environment that we use (please comment):

b) Do you handle different materials in different work environments? If yes, please describe what materials you handle in what work environments.

1. Open Benches: For Molecular Biology Techniques such as PCR, Gel Electrophoresis, Gene Cloning.
2. Laminar flow hood: Inoculation, Subculture, Plating, Picking colonies from plates.
3. Fume hood: When handling concentrated acids and other volatile substances.
4. Marked Area: Gels are treated with ethidium bromide (EtBr) in such marked work areas and Nitrile gloves are worn at all times, when working in those environments. The agarose gels containing ethidium bromide are disposed of in a specially marked container.

3. a) What personal protective equipment do you use in your lab? Please check all that apply.

• Lab coats
• Gloves
• Safety glasses / goggles
• Full face shields
• Surgical masks
• Respirators (what kind?):
• Other protective equipment (please describe):
• We do not know how to describe our protective equipment (please comment):

b) Do you use different protective equipment for different procedures? If yes, please describe what equipment you use for what purposes.

1. Nitrile gloves: When working in marked EtBr area.
2. Goggles and Safety Glasses: Under Fume hood.
3. Gloves: When dealing with molecular biology techniques.
4. Lab coat: Generally at all times.

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

We have separate disposal area for S1 wastes such as agar plates, used pipette tips, falcon tubes, eppendorfs, etc..
Liquid cell cultures are first autoclaved to remove live microbes and then are disposed of in S1 liquid waste containers.