Question: What equipment do you use? What safety gear do you use?

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  1. I use a range of equipment depending on what i need to do. i have equpiment which breaks bacteria by shooting them at a metal plate at twice the speed of sound (mach2), and some which helps purify protein. I have big shaing incubators to help grow my bacteria, and we use a plasma mass spectrometer which uses plasma heated to 1000C to determine what metals are present in a sample.

    I work in a PC2 lab (SA only has one PC3 lab now) which means i need to wear a labcoat that is water resistant, closed shoes, gloves, and often safety glasses. This is because we work with infectious bacteria which can make you very sick if you aren’t careful. If i need to use the -80C freezer i need special thick gloves as it is so cold it can give you a minor burn through normal gloves. Liquid nitrogen is even more potentially dangerous so you have to wear a complete face shield too.

    We have to do an assessment of the risk every time we design a new experiment and plan what safety gear we need before we start

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  2. I work in a PC2 lab the same as Miranda, but sometimes I have to work with human blood. That means I need to make sure I am up to date with vaccinations such as hepatitis as well as wearing all the right safety equpiment!

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  3. One of the pieces of equipment I use is a bio-safety cabinet. This is a bit like a big enclosed shelf that’s about table height. It has a special airflow system that goes through a filter and makes inside the cabinet sterile. I need this when I work with the cells I grow so they are not contaminated with bacteria. I have to have all my normal lab safety gear – coat, closes in shoes – but I also need to wear a gown with long sleeves and wipe ethanol over my hands so I don’t bring bacteria into the cabinet.

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