Team:Sheffield/Safety
Safety
Introduction
The most important responsibility of a research scientist is to ensure that his/her work does not endanger the health and safety of anyone else. We, the Sheffield iGEM 2019 team have followed the UK Health and Safety regulations and have also maintained high ethical standards in our work. In the paragraph below we document the rules we followed to ensure our health and safety and the health and safety of those around us.
Making sure we stay in good health
1. Preventing any incidents
- All students read and signed the COSHH Risk Assessment form as well as safety instructions for all kits we were using and the reagents we were handling
- All students were introduced to the rules of good laboratory practice
- All students wore appropriate clothing in the lab and makerspaces including lab-coats, aprons, gloves, closed-toe shoes, and goggles
- Supervisors were present in the lab with the students at all times to ensure that health and safety rules were followed.
- There were Lab managers and technicians in charge of taking measures in case of health and safety problems.
Making sure our work does not put others at risk
In the process of building our device in the makerspace, we followed the following rules in order to reduce the risk to others
- All students received the relevant training for the tools in the makerspace before use
- All students returned all the tools after use to the required compartment
- All students kept their workspace clean and clear after use
- Student reps and Supervisors were always present to assist students to troubleshoot experiments with instruments if needed.
Access to the laboratory
In order to access to the laboratory for the production of different parts of our device, the team attended Health & Safety and Waste Disposal training courses.
An additional training course has been attended in order to use safely the following tools available in the workshop: power tools, hand tools, laser cutters, waterjet cutters, 3D printers, hot tools, pillar (bench) drills, and scroll saw.
An additional training course has been attended in order to use safely the following tools available in the workshop: power tools, hand tools, laser cutters, waterjet cutters, 3D printers, hot tools, pillar (bench) drills, and scroll saw.