Dana Ansari, a high school student from Baltimore Polytechnic, works in a laboratory at the Hopkins Medical School.

Lab safety: National issue not JHU's concern

By: Ming Wen

Posted: 10/25/07

The 2001 anthrax attacks on the U.S. Capitol changed many things in this country. Besides the disruption of government work and heightened level of security, the attacks were responsible for a flurry of spending on biodefense labs. Since then there have been more than 50 incidents of mishaps involving microbes and toxins reported by university biodefense labs. In the midst of such incidents, what are Hopkins research labs doing to address safety concerns? The answer may not be so surprising.

Most Hopkins research labs are cell culture labs and do not deal with many of the dangerous viruses or microbes that might be found in biodefense labs. "In tissue labs, we are more dangerous to what we are working with," senior Jennifer Petsche said.

That said, there are still dangerous chemicals used in day-to-day experiments.

"In my biomedical tissue engineering lab, we run a gel in which we see athenium bromide, which is a carcinogen. We always wear gloves and avoid the areas where we see it stored," Petsche said.

Some researchers are required to take safety courses that are three hours long and worth one credit.

"They taught us such things as 'in case of fire, notify someone,'" sophomore Byron Tang said. Most researchers are very knowledgeable about what is dangerous and what is not.

"If anything goes wrong, we have protocol to follow," senior Patrick Connell said.

But as the adage goes, rules are made to be broken.

"We don't wear goggles all the time," sophomore Wilson Tang said. "We just don't like to, but they are there. Some people wear flip flops sometimes, but it doesn't matter. They aren't really tight about it unless our principal investigator comes in. As with all general guidelines, sometimes you follow them, sometimes you don't."

"You're supposed to be safe in a classroom setting, but if you're doing it for experience, there is some risk associated with that. These are inherent risks," senior Winnie Tsang said.

Nevertheless the labs could improve their safety practices.

"Sometimes people use gloves with crap on them and touch the computer, and people without gloves touch them. There are a lot of people in a little lab, anything can happen. We just need more space, because there are a lot of experiments going on," sophomore Wilson Tsang said.

"I've seen a lot of people drink water in the lab. That's not good. Even if you put the chemicals on benches and don't need them, the molecules are still in the air. You are drinking water along with all the molecules in the air. I definitely felt a little headache afterwards," sophomore Christian Chun said.

"I do feel that our lab is pretty safe because we don't work with dangerous things. People who work with dangerous things tend to tell us to stay away," Petsche said. "In an industrial chemistry lab, we have a chemist who does all this stuff in the hood. We also work with paraformaldehyde, which you don't want to inhale, so you wear a mask."

The general attitude given by Hopkins undergraduate researchers is that there's really nothing to worry about. The record shows this, as there have not been many major accidents.

Undergraduate researchers seem calm and assured when talking about safety procedures.

"Undergraduates don't work with as many dangerous chemicals," Connell said.