Safety
1. Would any of your project ideas raise safety issues in
terms of:
Researcher Safety
We have isolated and cultured the bacteria sample from landfill
at Galuga, West Java Indonesia. To prevent contamination by some
harmfull bacteria, we have followed the instruction of safety
procedure, such as using sensigloves, mask, and washing hand
after sampling. Hazardous chemicals that we used are aclrilamide
and ethidium bromyde. Acrylamide (or acrylic amide) is a simple
organic compound with the chemical formula C3H5NO. It's
potentially hazardous to health (cancer or carcinogenic).
Acrylamide can form long polymer chains known as polyacrylamide,
which is also carcinogenic. Inhalation: irritation,
disorientation, burning, convulsions. Contact with skin:
irritation, disorientation. Eye contact: irritation, a burning
sensation of the eyes, eye damage.
Ethidium bromide will reduce the rate of migration of linear DNA
molecules by 15%. This solution is extremely dangerous and
carcinogenic. All solutions which contained ethidium bromide
should be decontaminated before disposal. Ethidium Bromide
(EtBr) will fluoresce under UV exposure. These dyes can be added
to the gel and buffer so there is no staining after
electrophoresis process. The advantage is more practical, but
the possibility of EtBr contamination is greater. Due to the
carcinogenic factor, it must be avoided for direct contact.
Public Safety
We have ethics to minimize the danger possibility to public. We
usually wear single-used gloves, covered shoes, lab coat, and
mask so the accumulation of materials and impurities are not
exposed to participant directly. We have a liquid discharge
valves which equipped with running water, so it won't settle. We
also have a separated solid waste disposal for potentially
hazardous materials. Those ethics are rules in our work on this
project.
Environmental Safety
No harmful effect on our enzyme product. E. coli bacteria which
inserted by Cutinase gene has been set for its life period by
sonicator so there'll no blooming act in nature. Destruction of
PET by using our products is done at indoor laboratory so the
waste does not impact to the environment directly. The enzyme
does not cause further effect especially for chemical / physical
danger.No harmful effect on our enzyme product. E. coli bacteria
which inserted by Cutinase gene has been set for its life
period by sonicator so there'll no blooming act in nature.
Destruction of PET by using our products is done at indoor
laboratory so the waste does not impact to the environment
directly. The enzyme does not cause further effect especially
for chemical / physical danger.
2. Do any of the new BioBrick parts (or devices) that you
made this year raise safety issues? If yes, Did you document these issues in the Registry?
No, we didn't document the safety issue to the registry, but our
procedure was according the Standard Operational Procedure of
Molecular Biology Laboratory and Microbiology laboratory in IPB
(Bogor Agricultural University). So we think our project hasn't
any safety risk during we follow the procedure carefully.
How did you manage to handle the safety issue?
To handle the security issue of our work, we always consult with
the team advisor and instructor who handle the laboratory
security work in IPB. Our security is guaranteed by following
the standard operating procedures which provided in each
laboratory. As a mechanism to ensure the safety of our work,
first of all we started it by product testing step in the
laboratory before applying it in nature, so when the result is
guaranteed safely, it can be applied in nature.
How could other teams learn from your experience?
Other teams can learn from the procedure that we have used. We
use the common procedure that is used by molecular researchers
at the laboratory, so its safety has been tested (as long as we
follow the standard operation procedure had been given).
3. Is there a local biosafety group, committee, or review
board at your institution?
Which specific biosafety rules or guidelines do you have to
consider in your country?
We have no local biosafety committee at our institution but
there are Biosafety rules or guidelines in our country. Please
see below :
1. Regulation Law No. 32 of 2009 about Environmental
Protection & Management
2. Law No. 7 of 1996 on Food
3. Law No. 18 of 2002 on National System
Research,Development and Application of Science and
Technology
4. Law No. 18 of 2004 on Plantation
5. Law No. 23 of 1992 on Health
6. Law No. 23 of 1992 on Animal, Fish, and Plant
Quarantine
7. Law No. 41 of 1999 on Forestry
8. Government Regulation No. 21 of 2005 on Biosafety of
Genetically Engineered Product
9. Presidential Decree 39 of 2010 on Biosafety Commision of
Genetically Engineered Product.
10. INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENT Biosafety Commision
Established by Presidential Decree No. 39/2010
11. Biosafety Technical Team In the establishment
process.
12. Biosafety Clearing House Regarding Article 20 of the
Cartagena Protocol, Indonesia has been establish a Biosafety
Clearing House to facilitate the exchange of scientific,
technical , environmental and legalinformation on LMO. BCH is
coordinated by Ministry of Environment in cooperation with
Indonesia Institute of Science Secretariat of Biosafety
Commission.
13. Law 32/2009. Every activities may create important risk
on environment, biodiversity and human healthand human safety
have to carry out Environmental Risk Analysis, Risk Assessment,
Risk Management, Risk Communication.
4. Do you have any other ideas how to deal with safety
issues that could be useful for future iGEM competitions? How
could parts, devices and systems be made even safer through
biosafety engineering?
To ensure the biosafety, it will be better to give more
certification letter about the safety of materials which
provided to the participants. Each institution must have their
own fire fighters and laboratory clinic centre.
To minimize the hazardous chemicals we can use the synthetic
biology engineered system. The equipment which is used is fairly
easy to control for these biosafety ethics. The example of
recommended system that has better security is JSA (Job Safety
Analyst).
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