Team:ITB Indonesia/Safety
Introduction
“Safety First”, a slogan that we always heard in a workplace. iGEM ITB team recognize the important safety of working in a laboratory and aims to take all necessary precautions to ensure no personal or environmental harm occurs. Shrimp Pal designed to be a secure device that going to be used by most of the shrimp farmers and we do not want the safety and security to be variables that create concerns among our users. The next paragraphs describe our lab safety and how we implemented biosafety and biosecurity in developing and using the Shrimpal.id
Lab Safety
Our Laboratory
We were working in several laboratories that follows BSL-1 guidelines. The waste that is produced from our activities were contained and processed by third party under surveillance of ITB. Every lab are provided by special containers and instructions for the correct classification of waste.
Our laboratorium is provided with an autoclave and laminar flow cabinet with UV sterilization, pH meter, and many others.
Access to the laboratory
Our laboratory practice division that responsible for laboratory activities consists of students from several major such as biotechnology, microbiology, biology and chemistry that had good laboratory practice and skill. However, as a security measure, no one allowed to work alone in the lab.
Before we got permission to use the laboratory, we were given a tour lab, safety induction and other emergency training for general laboratory safety. This information can be seen in the information sheets given to us by the School of Life Science and Technology ITB and can be downloaded through these buttons.
Our team is formed by microbiologist, biotechnologies, engineers, not everybody knows how to behavior in a laboratory. So it is needed to teach the basics of laboratory safety. Our laboratory is equipped by evacuation route, caution sign and waste management. These information can be found inside the laboratory or at the hallway of the building
- Evacuation route
- Caution sign
- Waste management
- Safety Procedure
Every laboratory has a safety procedure like this picture..
We always follow the rule to work using lab coat and shoes
Our laboratory is equipped by first aid box:
Strains
Shrimp Pal uses E. coli strain TOP 10 from Molecular Analysis Laboratorium, School of Life Science and Technology ITB as chassis and classified into Risk Group 1 microorganism that causes minimal harm to humans.
Safety by Design
Safety and health begins, and belongs, in design. Hazards identified during the design of a product or process can be eliminated or controlled through judicious design decisions and engineering. Shrimpal.id was designed to ensure safety for all users, to be safe enough for everyone. In this table, you can see the safety problem and how we solved them
| Safety Problem | Implemented Solution |
|---|---|
| Vial | Vial tube are disposable to ensure the purity of each reaction |
| Syringe | Tips are disposable to ensure the purity of each reaction |
| Protection of the user | We want the user to be protected when measure the sample and want user to see something wrong happens inside. That is why we use PLA plastic to cover all parts of our box. The user should use gloves and safety goggles. |
| Overheating the PLA plastic | PLA plastic is not safe in the high temperature may release toxic fumes. But we can prevent by giving proper ventilation to storage room by giving air conditioner |
