Team:GreatBay SCIE/Safety
Safety is one of the most critical values measured in iGEM, and every project should have its own angle and approach towards the aspect of safety in their project. As we are working with lethal mushroom toxins this year, we have done meticulous research on how to handle and dispose of the toxins, interviewed expert mycologists for their experience and opinions, and developed a (hopefully) comprehensive system of rules for our toxin experiments. As for general safety measures, laboratory rules and corresponding punishments were established and stringently implemented.
General Lab Safety
In our laboratory, a formal rulebook including all the lab safety instructions and general experiment protocols is printed and distributed around for everyone. Apart from that, every one of us had to pass a written safety exam as well as a practical experiment operations test before we were eligible for starting WetLab.
Safety Instruction Booklet's Table of Contents by BluePha Lab
Handling lethal mushroom toxins
The entirety of our team has never had the chance to come into close contact with toxic mushrooms, let alone used purified mushroom toxins. Therefore, we were especially careful about the use of toxins and consulted several professionals who experimented with amatoxins with proximity - Professor Deng from Guangdong Institute of Microbiology, and Dr. Candace Bever, the author of one of the core pieces of literature we reviewed and adapted from.
"The toxin is not lethal through skin contact," Professor Deng said, "you just need to make sure no one accidentally swallows them." As for the disposal of used equipment that came into contact with toxins, she suggested the use of a designated disposal bin and to contact firms specializing in handling chemicals to take care of the waste.
Interview with Dr. Deng >
"Lethal Toxin" warning sign
To the right is the "lethal toxin" sign we designed as warnings for people who shared a lab with us. We stick these on disposal bins, electrophoresis troughs and other containers that may carry even the smallest doses of mushroom toxin. We also had cordons separating the sterile laboratory areas from desks on which we conducted toxin experiments.
Dr. Bever suggested us to look up the signs and symptoms of mushroom poisoning so that we know if we accidentally got poisoned. She had informed us that symptoms are not going to be immediate - they would happen 6 to 12 hours after ingestion, and at this point, vomiting and diarrhea start occurring. "It is probably lethal if you breathe it in in dust form, so get it dissolved in a solution as fast as possible," said Dr. Bever.
Interview with Dr. Bever >
During Experiments
The following precautions must be made before conducting experiments involving the toxins:
- Wear close-toed shoes
- Wear long pants
- Wear formal lab coats
- Long hair must be tied up
- Wear disposable latex gloves
- Wear goggles
- Wear face masks
- Make sure no skin is exposed to air
- Absolutely no food or drink in lab areas
- Make sure experiments are supervised at all times
- Make sure all containers are tightly sealed and will not leak
And the following must be done after experiments:
- Dispose of gloves and face masks into designated trash bins. Make sure the outer side of gloves and masks does not come in contact with your skin while taking off
- Wash hands and face thoroughly
- Change clothes after experiments
Safety by Design
Introduction
The importance of safety in our project (and every other iGEM project, of course) cannot be stressed enough; the danger that mushroom toxins pose as is something that people should not turn a blind eye on, no matter the place and time. We need to ensure that our project and product are 120% safe - not only in terms of technical and operational safety inside the lab but also safety in broader social/environmental aspects. So, following suit to Wageningen_UR, the Overgraduate Runner-Up in iGEM 2019, we created this Safety-By-Design page to demonstrate how our project can "...be used in real-life situations" and "contribute to a safe and sustainable world" (quoted from Wageningen_UR's Wiki).
Guidelines
Wageningen_UR listed four guidelines for consideration on their "Safe-by-Design" page:
- Show that you thought about safety in different phases of your project.
- Show that Safe-by-Design has changed the design of the project.
- Take a look beyond the technical part.
- Incorporate stakeholder feedback, and how it might have changed your approach.
Visit Wageningen_UR's page here!
As a result, we created an infographic showing how we integrated the aspect of safety in our development of our hardware and throughout our project.
Our "Safety-By-Design" Infographic