Lab Safety and Ethics

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General Safety Guidelines

  • No experimenting with or on any surface or plate/cup/container that can hold food.
  • Experiments will have their own fridge. Do not place your experiments in the food fridge.
  • Don’t place your experiments near any food or drink.
  • Use the pressure cooker to sterilize all glassware, media and tools. Water should get to 121C or above for sterilization.
  • No flushing cells/cultures down the toilet or generally disposing of anything that has touched the cells without thorough disinfecting it with bleach or Lysol first or sterilizing it in the pressure cooker. Certain cultures, like E. Coli have an awful smell to them, and can be quite difficult to get rid of.
  • Disinfect/wipe down of any surface you've been working on with bleach or Lysol.
  • Cover dishes if you aren't directly working with your culture (to keep from contaminating your culture, your peers and Noisebridge).
  • Know how to safely use and dispose of materials (reagents for example) before they enter Noisebridge.
  • Many materials used in wet biology are flammable or otherwise harmful and will be kept in a locked cabinet labeled with the appropriate warning labels (ie: flammable, skull and crossbones, etc.)
  • Safety Material Data Sheets will be kept near the cabinet for all materials stored there.
  • Noisebridge is a humane space -- no animal experimentation!
  • Extra caution must be used in dealing with chemicals and cell cultures for not just healthy adults, but also children, elderly, immunosuppressed people, people with high allergen reactions, pets, and anything the pets may ingest including roaches/mice/pests that may reside at Noisebridge. All of these things come into Noisebridge and we can by NO MEANS be thought of as lab environment (until we come up with dedicated space or that).
  • Know your materials, know your materials, know your materials