Team:Hong Kong-CUHK/safety.html

Have your team members received any safety training yet?

Yes, our team members have already received safety training during 2014 summer.
<a href="/certificate.html">[click here for certificate]</a>

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

               The Biosafety courses received are:

• Safety laws and policy
• Fire safety and emergency procedures
• Electrical safety
• Safety information resources including MSDS
• Chemical handling requirements and waste disposal procedures
• Use of personal protective equipment
• Practicing safe science
• Use of fume cupboards
• Principle of Biological Safety
• Risk Group and Biosafety Level
• Laboratory Practices
• Bioaerosol
• Biosafety Cabinet
• Sterilization
• Biowastes
• Genetically Manipulated Organisms

               In detail, regarding Biological and Related Safety, we have learned:

1. Risk-Grouping of Micro-organisms by Type
2. Biosafety Levels
3. Abbreviated Laboratory Biosafety Level Criteria
4. Handling Blood and Other "Products" of Human Origin
5. Biosafety Cabinets
6. Hazards from "Microbial" Aerosols
7. Work with Recombinant DNA
8. Treatment of Biological Waste and Spill Cleanup
9. Autoclave Safety and Disinfection
10. Clinical Waste Disposal

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.

               For the laboratory safety training requirements of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, please refer to:
               <a href="http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/useo/so/training.html">http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/useo/so/training.html</a>

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.

               Mr. YIP Sung Tat from the University Safety Office of the Chinese University of Hong Kong is one of the persons responsible for biological safety at our institution. The University Safety Office have done a regular safety check of the lab on 7/3/2014 and the rectification has been carried out by department. We discussed our project with university safety office every year, for evaluation of the project safety issue.

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.

               For the biosafety guidelines of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, please refer to:
               <a href="http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/useo/so/safety_policy.html">Safety Policy</a>

In your country, what are the regulations that govern biosafety in research laboratories? Please give a link to these regulations, or briefly describe them if you cannot give a link.

               For biosafety regulations of Hong Kong research laboratories, please refer to:
               <a href="http://www.chp.gov.hk/files/pdf/guidelines_on_biosafety_in_the_clinical_laboratory_2nd_edn.pdf">Guidelines on Biosafety in the Clinical Laboratory</a>

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

               The organisms that we handle are all from Risk group 1, which are in low risk - generally do not cause disease in healthy adult humans. There should not be any severe risks if all steps are handled properly according to biological safety guidelines. On the other hand, there may be risks if the biological waste and spill are not treated properly, or if the recombinant DNA steps are not handled properly.

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

               As the organisms that we handle are in Risk group 1, and both Azotobacter and E. coli exist in natural environment, they will not give high risk to general public even if escaping from our lab. The modified protein system in our project is only dealing with common gas in atmosphere, such as CO2, H2, and CH4. So far as we planned, the production amount is far from sufficient to cause public danger.

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

               As the organisms that we handle are in Risk group 1, and both Azotobacter and E. coli exist in natural environment, they will not give high risk to natural environment even if escaping from our lab. The modified protein system in our project is only dealing with common gas in atmosphere, such as CO2, H2, and CH4. So far as we planned, the production amount is far from sufficient to cause environmental.

Risks to security through malicious mis-use by individuals, groups, or countries

               Our project does not bear high risk to be maliciously mis-used by individuals, groups or countries, as it does not have any direct threat to human-being and human society.

What measures are you taking to reduce these risks?

               We ensure that every member of the team has finished the lab safety training course before entering the lab. Teammates have been trained on proper handling of biological and chemical materials before doing lab work alone. In the lab, personal protective equipments (PPEs) are advised to wear according to requirement. The instructors and advisors have acquired level-2 biological and chemical lab safety training, to ensure further safety. Biological and chemical wastes are disposed properly according to guidelines, respectively. We have considered the safety issue when choosing organisms to use. Also, we communicate with supervisors during regular lab meetings, or whenever a problem comes into our concern.

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 mis-uses.) Also, what risks might arise if the knowledge you generate or the methods you develop became widely available?

               As far as we foresee, there will not be any severe new risks arising from the project's growth. Our project does not have any severe direct risk towards lab workers, general public, environment and malicious mis-uses.

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.

               We designed certain promoters to regulate the protein expressions of our system, and the organism functions our project in a closed container tank, which reduces risks of biohazard.