Applied Molecular Biology Lab

Lab Safety Guidelines

General Lab Safety Rules

1. No eating or drinking in the lab. (This includes water bottles!) Food wrappers or containers are NOT allowed in the trash bins in the lab—they must be disposed of outside the lab.
2. Large personal items (bags, coats, etc.) may be stored in the lab during class but should be kept out of the way. (There is space and hooks under the benches along the side of the lab that you may use to store or hang up such larger items like bookbags and coats.) Please keep all aisles and floor space in the lab clear and free of clutter at all times.
3. Wear appropriate clothing: 
   • No open-toe shoes!!
   • Long pants and long sleeves are recommended in the lab.
   • Tie long hair back.
4. Gloves and lab coats should be worn at all times while working in the lab—this protects you and also prevents you from contaminating your experiments. Safety glasses should be worn when appropriate. Remove all protective clothing (gloves, lab coat, and safety glasses) before leaving the lab (including bathroom breaks).
5. Glove rules: 
   • Remove gloves to handle non-lab equipment (e.g. doors, phones, computers).
   • Don’t touch your face, hair, etc. with your gloves when working at the bench.
   • Dispose of all used gloves in the gray “burn boxes”.
   • Do NOT throw gloves in the normal trash!
6. There is no smoking allowed in the lab or anywhere inside the building.
7. COVID-19 guidelines:  
   • You must complete all required COVID Pass daily health attestations and weekly testing requirements to have access to Building 68 and the teaching lab space.
   • Masks or cloth face coverings must be worn at all times while in the teaching lab or public common areas of the building (e.g. hallways, restrooms, etc.). 
   • Although there are no capacity limits in the teaching lab space, please follow social distancing guidelines when possible.
   • You are responsible for wiping down your lab workspace and common-touch surfaces (e.g. benchtop, etc.) with 70% ethanol or 10% bleach at the start and end of each lab session.

Dealing with Accidents/Injury

1. All injuries or accidents, no matter how minor, must be reported to a TA or instructor.
2. If you get a hazardous chemical/material in your eyes, immediately wash out your eyes for 15 minutes using the eyewashes located at each sink.
3. If you spill hazardous chemicals/materials on yourself or catch on fire, immediately use one of the lab safety showers (either by the offices near the lab entrance or by Alcove 4).
4. If you spill hazardous chemicals/materials on the floor, bench, etc., inform a TA or instructor—they will provide instructions on how to properly clean up the spill. 

Fire Safety Notes

1. When using a Bunsen burner, make sure to keep anything flammable (e.g., paper) away from the burner and keep long hair tied back.
2. Be aware of your surroundings—when reaching for objects or across benchtops, make sure you’re not accidentally extending your arm or hand right into a Bunsen burner flame!
3. Always make sure you TURN OFF the gas tap before leaving the lab.

Procedures for Handling/Disposal of Hazardous or Toxic Chemicals/Waste

Handling Toxic or Hazardous Chemicals

Before you come to the lab each day you must carefully read over the protocols for the day in your lab manual. In the protocols, we have highlighted the harmful chemicals used on certain days. Make sure that you are aware of the hazards of these chemicals before lab, and wear the appropriate protective clothing when using them (gloves, lab coats, and/or safety glasses).

Disposal of Toxic or Hazardous Chemicals

Daily disposal notes describing how to properly dispose of all hazardous material will be posted by the sinks every lab day. Check them each day for specific disposal instructions—if you have any questions, ask a TA or instructor. Certain chemicals cannot be disposed of down the sink (e.g., ethanol). Again, by reading your manual before you come to the lab, you will know which chemicals require special disposal procedures. Chemicals that cannot be disposed of down the sink are collected in labelled waste bottles in the fume hoods located in Alcoves 1–3. Certain chemicals are incompatible and cannot be collected in the same bottle. ALWAYS READ THE RED LABEL ON THE WASTE BOTTLE BEFORE ADDING YOUR CHEMICAL. If in doubt, ask a TA or instructor. If you accidentally add the wrong chemical to a waste bottle, immediately inform a TA or instructor, as particular combinations of incompatible chemicals can potentially be explosive/reactive.

Procedures for Handling/Disposal of Biohazardous Waste

Wear gloves when handling or disposing of biohazardous material (e.g., bacteria, yeast, etc.). Solid biohazardous waste (e.g., bacteria plates, yeast plates) and all gloves should be disposed of in the gray burn boxes. Liquid biohazardous waste (e.g., a liquid bacteria/yeast culture or media) should be treated with 10% bleach and allowed to sit for 20 minutes to ensure all organisms are killed before pouring the liquid waste down the sink (10% bleach is located in the labelled squirt bottles by the sinks). Note: Do NOT put any liquid in the burn boxes!

Procedures for General Disposal/Cleaning of Lab Supplies

1. Gloves: Dispose of in the burn boxes. Do NOT throw out in the normal trash!
2. Plastic pipet tips (200 μL or 1mL size): Dispose of in the burn boxes. 
3. Plastic Eppendorf tubes, Falcon tubes, PCR tubes, and plastic cuvettes: Dispose of in burn boxes. If the tubes or cuvettes contained biohazardous material at any point, they should be treated with bleach for 20 minutes to kill any residual living organisms before being thrown out. Make sure tubes do not contain any hazardous chemicals in them when you throw them out. (Any hazardous chemicals remaining should be disposed of in the proper waste container in the hoods.)
4. Empty tip boxes or tube boxes: Place on the labelled shelves in Alcove 4.
5. Plastic loops, plastic spreaders, inoculating sticks, and toothpicks: Dispose of in the burn boxes.
6. Glass serological pipettes (5-mL or 10-mL): Place in plastic boxes marked “10% Bleach” located at each bench. (Note: These pipettes get washed and reused—do not throw them out!) Empty metal pipette cans go in the white bins along the wall.
7. Glass slides/coverslips, any broken glass, razor blades: Dispose of in the appropriately labelled red “Sharp” secondary containers located on the benchtops—do not put these items directly in the burn boxes.
8. Dirty glass test tubes, glass flasks, glass bottles, and plastic centrifuge tubes/bottles: Rinse with water and place in the white bins by the sink or along the walls. All caps/lids should go in the buckets located at each sink. If the tube/bottle/flask contained biohazardous material at any point, they should be treated with bleach for 20 minutes before being rinsed out and placed in the bins. Please remove ALL tape labels from tubes/bottles before placing them in the bins!
9. Gel boxes and electrophoresis apparatus: Rinse with water and leave on your benchtop to dry. 

Note: NEVER put any liquid in the burn boxes—only dispose of SOLID waste in them!!

Note: All “sharp things”(e.g., anything that could potentially pierce skin, like glass waste, broken glass, or a razor blade) should be disposed of in an appropriately labelled red “Sharps” secondary container. Do NOT dispose of sharp objects directly in the burn boxes as they may puncture the bag.

Note: Each lab bench station has a benchtop biohazard waste transfer container for used pipet tips, as well as several small plastic beakers to use as waste containers during the labs. You should label beakers for various waste streams, depending on the protocol for that day (e.g., “Bacteria media waste,” “Omega buffer waste,” etc.). During the lab, dispose of all used tips in the provided transfer container for convenience—at the end of the day, empty everything out of the transfer container into the gray burn boxes. Collect any media or buffer waste accordingly into the appropriate container as you work. At the end of lab, dispose of the waste properly according to the posted daily disposal notes. Bacteria/media waste should be treated with bleach before being poured down the sink. Hazardous buffer waste should be disposed of in the properly labelled waste containers in the hoods in Alcoves 1, 2, or 3.