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• Laboratory safety involves recognizing/evaluating hazards, assessing risks, selecting appropriate PPE, and performing experimental work safely.

Importance of Laboratory Safety

• To prevent accidents.
• Protect personnel by wearing PPE and following protocols.
• Inform others about deviations from protocols.

Biosafety

• Aims to prevent unintentional exposure to/release of biological agents.
• "Keep bugs away from people."
• Involves safety precautions reducing a laboratorian's exposure risk including limiting work environment contamination, and safeguarding the community.

Concepts under Biosafety

• Containment
• Protocols
• PPE
• Proper waste management/safe disposal

Biosecurity

• Aims to prevent unauthorized access, loss, theft, misuse, diversion, or release of microorganisms.
• "Keep people away from bugs."

Elements to ensure biosecurity

• Personnel reliability
• Accountability
• Information security
• Response
• Physical measures
• Transport security
• Management
• Awareness

Importance

• Most lab infections result from human factors rather than engineering control malfunctions.

Factors leading to potential and confirmed exposures to biological agents

• Absence/improper use of PPE
• Inadequate/ignored risk assessments
• Lack of SOPs
• Insufficiently trained personnel

Hazards

• Chemical, physical, and biological.

Routes of Entry

• Contact, ingestion, and inhalation.

Laboratory Signs and Symbols

• Easily recognizable graphic labels representing general protocols/safety instructions in workplaces, establishments, or public spaces.

Globally Harmonized System (GHS) Pictograms

• An internationally agreed system standardizing chemical hazard classification/communication.
• Graphic images immediately showing the user what hazard exists.

Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)

• Well-documented, validated, stepwise instructions for performing laboratory practices and procedures.
• Safely, timely, and reliably in line with institutional policies, best practices, and regulations.

General Lab Safety Rules

• Housekeeping, dress code, personal protection, chemical, and electrical safety rules.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

• Equipment/clothing providing a barrier against biological agents to minimize exposure.
• Includes coats, gowns, suits, gloves, footwear, glasses/goggles, masks, and respirators.

"PPE in the Biological Lab" Video

• Demonstrated lab coat importance while using a flame.
• Fire extinguisher training shown as important.
• Accidents can happen, maintain situational awareness during routine procedures.
• Lab infections are often due to human factors.

Human factors in lab infections

• Absence or improper PPE use
• Inadequate/ignored risk assessments
• Lack of SOPs
• Insufficiently trained personnel
• Proper training/adherence to protocols are vital for preventing infections.

"The Beaking Method" Video

• Removes gloves efficiently and effectively.
• Involves 10 steps, last step being washing hands with soap/water.
• Focuses on infectious agent workers and their families/the world.

Microorganism Resistance to Disinfectants

• Prions, bacterial spores (Bacillus subtilis, Clostridium species), mycobacteria, non-enveloped/small viruses, fungi, vegetative bacteria, and enveloped/medium-size viruses.

Risk Management Process

• A continuous process to identify, assess, control, and monitor risks

Steps

• Identify hazards/risks.
• Evaluate risks.
• Implement a risk mitigation plan as needed.
• Evaluate control effectiveness.

Identify the Hazards and Risks

• Identify activity/procedure hazards.
• Examine each step of activity.

Determine Potential Hazards

• Biological, chemical, physical hazards and their sources.

Determine Routes of Entry

• Contact, Ingestion, Inhalation
• Consider personnel, how the work is performed, who is doing work (what, where, how).
• Identify possible failure points and consequences.

Evaluate the Risks

• Risk evaluations should use set criteria.
• Criteria involves likelihood and consequences of undesirable incidents.

Characterize the Risks

• Assess based including Biological Agent Factors, Laboratory/Testing Environment Factors, Human Factors, Consequences of Risks.

Biological Agent Factors

• Stability, transmission routes, endemicity, life stage

Lab Testing Environment Factors

• Physical infrastructure and existing controls, type of facility, presence of engineering/safety controls, type of equipment used, function/reliability of ventilation systems. Procedural:

Human Factors

• Employee competency and training, behavioral aspects.

Consequences of Risks

• Infection severity including; virulence factors, high communicability, severity infection/disease.

Administrative Controls

• Availability of vaccines, prophylaxis, therapeutic interventions, and emergency response procedures Host factors:
  • Health and immune status of staff.
  • Behavioral aspects: willingness to accept safe work procedures. Prioritize the Risks and Determine if Risks are Acceptable
• Risks include risk reduction
• Classify risks as acceptable, unacceptable.

Implement a Risk Mitigation Plan

• A plan for unacceptable risks should be implemented.

Action Items in Hazard Prevention and Control

• Employers are to provide information to investigate options for hazard control.
• Select the most feasible controls
• Address serious hazards first
• Goal is to ensure affective long-term control of hazards
• Once hazards are controlled, they must be implemented to the control plan
• Ensure employers track, evaluate, and follow maintenance practices.

Hierarchy of Controls

• Most to least effective order: Elimination, Substitution, Engineering Controls, Administrative Controls, PPE.

Supplementary Videos: LABORATORY SAFETY

Decontamination for Lab Safety

• Eliminates most or all microorganisms depending on the level.
• Disinfection eliminates nearly all pathogenic microorganisms except microbial spores
• Sterilization eliminates ALL microbial life
• Decontamination must be completed using chemical, heat, or radiation methods.
• Choice of method depends on the degree of contamination along with the type and concentration of contaminates

Choosing a Decontamination Method

• Determining the type, concentration, and location of microorganism assists with establishing a decontamination procedure
• After determining the microorganism, you can choose the type of disinfectant Effectiveness of a disinfectant is dependent on factors:
  • Chemical composition, concentration, contact time, amount, temperature

Disinfecting with Liquid Chemicals

• There are 3 levels of disinfect: low, intermediate, and high

Disinfecting with Gas

• Gases used for closed equipment includes chlorine dioxide, ethylene oxide, vaporized H2O2, Paracetic acid

Disinfecting with Heat and Radiation

• Includes wet or dry heat
• Dry Heat: used for glass wares, set from 160-170 for 2-4 hours, not suitable for heat-labile materials Wet Heat: Also like an autoclave, which heats samples under high pressure to approx. 120*C for 30-60 min

Waste Disposal

• Generators of hazardous waste requires regulating the disposal process.
• The waste management systems must be devised before beginning research Each institution have have their own rules for waste disposal Proper Waste Disposal:
• Efficient management is important.
• Accomplish by using minor material and recycling.
• Generated waste must be labeled, segregated, according to chemical compatibility and stored.
• Other wise, sharps and glasses are disposed of in there corresponding container

Typical Laboratory Procedure

• Reduces large amount of chemicals.
• Waste Management:
  • Substitute chemicals.
  • Recycle solvents.
  • Wear proper PPE.
  • Collect chemical waste.
  • Affix labesl.
  • Use seperate containers.
  • When full, carefully move them to the designated area.

Sharps and glass waste

 - Dispose of needles in sharps .
 - Used pipittes get special containers.

Biosafety measures

• Prevention of large-scale loss of biological integrity.
• Protection against incidents.
• Thousand of labs are working with infectious agents that allow contamination of the work space.

Biosafety levels

• Diffenter labs have different biosafety levels
• Level 1 works with least dangerous .
• Level 4 works with the deadliest
• Regardless, the basis of level 1 is protective

Basic Biosafety Rules

• Standard lab safety
• No contacts or drinks in the lab
• PPE kit required.

PPE Equipment basics

• Protect with clothing, or goo goo glasses.
• Choices based on work.
• Employees trained.

Microbes

• Enclosed bacertria and pathogens can cause diseses.
• saftey is careful storage

Antimicrobial agents

• Kill by concentration, and contaiminatation of contact time

Beach and disinfection

• Break labs, and contamination
• Differentatiate between sterlization
• No lab procedures and appropriate products

Best practice safety

• Must wash hands before and after entering
• Cannot store items in cabinet
• Disinfect work surfaces before and after

Best practice fun fact

• D value: Time required for a control agent to kill 90%

Disinfectants

• Aseptic.
• Affecting efficacy concentration is high

Working alone in the lab

• Do not work alone.
• Have emergency numbers.
• Having a partner makes the labor danger free

Tips for the job

• Responsible partner can see you and hear you.
• Best practice s no danger with a friend.

Pipette saftey

• Can have affects of ergonomics and can causes discomfort of the body.
• Long hours of pipetting can result in discomfort, and body can be at long risk. Bench Setup

Be Aware of Posture with Working

• Your back should make contact with the back of the work chair
• Be very aware of the tools your using and how they should be set forth
• If done improper the pipet set could cause a severe injury

Tips for lab practices

• Try to utilize hand and arm and shoulder stretches during breaks with your partner