Safety
Safety is the most regarded issue for H-Metal Silence throughout the entire experiment. All the designs and operations strictly follow the lab procedures and official guidelines. With sufficient education and practice, participants of the wet lab may appropriately and professionally experiment. While we ensure biological, chemical, and general lab safety, the heavy metal samples were disposed of correctly. During the whole process, the PI and project coach provided supervision and necessary help to participants to secure their safety at the highest level.
Laboratory Safety
Our experiments were conducted in Suzhou Qinghao laboratory and ATLATL. Both laboratories provided sufficient security equipment such as emergency showers and eye washers. While we were using both laboratories, several procedures are required:
- All the personnel are left outside of the lab area
- Lab coat, gloves, and masks are required in the lab area
- Hazard materials are handled independently (details in Material Safety)
- Equipment is handled carefully to avoid any breakage
- Equipment with potential risks is handled by professionals
- Entering restricted areas is not allowed
- All the operations are under the supervision
- All the laboratory equipment and materials are left in the lab area
Material Safety
This experiment involved both biohazard and chemical wastes, including bacteria, nucleic acid (plasmids), enzymes, FBS, antibiotics, heavy metal solutions, etc. However, all the listed hazard materials are handled with the following requirements:
- Wear gloves and no direct contact with the hazard materials
- All the operations involving hazardous materials are conducted in a specific area, in order to avoid cross-contamination
- Heavy metal solutions are prepared in the fume hood
- All hazard materials are kept in cabinets or drawers to avoid unconscious touching and even breaking
- Biohazard waste and chemical wastes are gathered independently in different containers
- Disinfection is required before handling biohazard wastes, chemical wastes are handled by the labs
