Lab Safety Information
General Information
Important phone numbers:
MIT Medical: 617-253-4481
MIT Urgent Care: 617-253-1311
MIT Emergency Number: 617-253-1212
MIT Facilities: 617-253-4948
Note
Emergency contact phone numbers are listed on the green card outside every lab room.
Procedure if you are injured or exposed to biosafety/chemical hazards:
Make sure area is safe to walk away from.
Wash/clean the wound.
Inform Katie and the EHS Rep (Chris) over Slack.
Go to MIT Medical or the hospital for evaluation.
Note
Research-related medical costs are paid by MIT’s occupational health fund.
Injuries must be reported by the Department EHS coordinator (Brian Smith), the PI (Katie), and the EHS Rep (Chris).
Evacuation routes:
The two closest evacuation routes are to the left towards Ames St or to the right towards Building 56.
In the case of a large chemical release in the building, the stairwell in 66-201 is under positive air pressure.
Room-Specific Information
66-257A (Shared space with the Coley Lab)
Fire extinguisher and safety shower are located on the Coley Lab side of the room.
Eye wash station is located next to the water baths.
Satellite Accumulation Areas are located in the fumehood (formaldehyde and formamide only) and underneath the gel runners (gels only).
DNA gels containing ethidium bromide should be disposed of in the black container. A dilute rinse of the flask used to pour the gel can be put down the sink. DO NOT let pieces of gel go down the sink or sit in the sink strainer.
66-225 (Cloning area)
Eye wash station is located to the right of the Elga water machine.
Bleach storage is underneath the sink. The 10% bleach container should be used for the Attune and refilling bleach bottles next to media/cells aspirators. When it is empty, follow the recipe listed on the bottle and replace the “last filled” label.
Satellite Accumulation Area is located under the Elga water machine:
Liquids such as miniprep waste (guanidium chloride), paraformaldehyde, acrylamide, and trizol must be collected in an SAA.
Decontaminated liquid biowaste, DNA/enzyme solutions, and salt buffers can go down the sink.
Vacuum pumps closer to 66-219 are for miniprep waste (supernatant buffers AFTER cells have been lysed). Vacuum pumps closer to 66-257A are for media and have flasks containing bleach.
Important
Bleach should NEVER ben added to miniprep waste since it will generate toxic fumes.
After aspirating into the media/cells aspirators, you should run 10% bleach through the line from the bottles in each bin.
If you swap between the multichannel and single-channel aspirator, flush the line with 10% bleach before switching.
When decontaiminating liquid biowaste, you should add bleach to make a 10% bleach solution and let it sit for at least 20 minutes before pouring down the sink.
66-225B (Tissue culture area)
Fire extinguisher and safety shower are located near the Keyence.
Eye wash station is located by the sink.
Sharps containers are next to each hood. Use these to dispose of glass aspirating pipettes (after flushing with bleach).
Bleach is stored in the cabinet to the left of the sink.
If you swap between the multichannel and single-channel aspirator, flush the line with 10% bleach before switching.
When finished with a BSC, you are required to clean it with:
Pre-empt if you used virus or are the last user of the day. Prep-empt requires a 1 minute contact time to decontaminate the surface.
70% ethanol always.
Rinse the aspirator line with 10% bleach from the bottle inside the BSC. If the bottle is empty, refill it with 50 mL concentrated bleach and 450 mL water.
Liquid in the aspirator waster bottles should ALWAYS be clear. If it is red or pink, add more bleach from the cabinate under the sink.
If the aspirator waste is filled to the indicated line, add more bleach for 20 minutes before pouring down the sink. Fill the empty bottle with a small amout of bleach.
Gloves should be disposed of in large or small biowaste bins.
Important
BSL2+ Information
Official indication that the room is BSL2+ is the black and orange sign on the door. If this is present, UROP and HIP-SAT students MAY NOT enter the room.
BSL2+ samples can be stored in:
Incubators that are labeled with a sign, within a secondary containment tray.
Screw-top containers in a labeled plastic container in the fridge.
Screw-top containers in a labeled plaster container in the -80 freezer.
The bottom centrifuge when labeled.
UROP and HIP-SAT students MAY NOT touch any equipment, cells, or samples that are BSL2+.
When beginning BSL2+ work, you must flip the BSL2/BSL2+ sign, add the expected time to the lab Google calendar, send a message in the BSL2+ slack channel, and confirm that there are no non-BSL2+ trained people in the room.
All human-infectible viruses that express known oncogenes are to be treated as BSL2+ including: Lenti p53DD/hRas, Retro p53DD/hRas (not made in PlateE cells), starting from 1 day after infection with a BSL2+ virus.
Do not use glass aspirating pipettes when doing BSL2+ work.
Biosafety centrifuge caps are required when spinning a BSL2+ virus or infected sample. Buckets should only be opened in the BSC and must be decontaminated after use.
For more information on BL2+ protocols, see the Virus safety page.
66-218 (Atrium/Hallway area)
Fire extinguisher and safety shower are located near the shelving unit.
66-219 (Quarantine/Genomics area)
Eye wash station is in the far-right corner.
Bleach is stored under the sink.
The “EHS corner” has red waste tags, waste containers, and sharps containers. A red waste tag should be added to a waste bottle when you first add waste to it.