Culturing unkown bacteria in class

[HuStudent]

Hello everyone! I'm a college student and need some help. I'm currently taking a 200 level microbiology class. My professor had the class culture some unknown bacteria from an acquittance that apparently had flu-like symptoms. This is at a fairly new school and the lab equipment is nothing special. We just use usual precautions (gloves, goggles etc) that you would find in a school lab. I had an internship as a lab assistant when I was in high school and I clearly remember be told that we should treat all unknown pathogens at potentially dangerous. When I asked my professor about this she told me nothing we were doing required anything but a Biosafety level 1 lab, which is what are school lab is. Fast forward a couple of weeks and I'm talking to my advisor (a biotech professor) who did a double take when I told him I was culturing unknown bacteria. He urged me not to do that since it was a safety issue. He talked to my microbiology professor who apparently told him to take a hike. I guess there might be some bad blood there? I talked to another professor who also felt it was not safe and urged me to talk to the Provost. I filed a complaint two weeks ago with the office of the Provost and I have not had a reply. Your advice please!

[CharonY]

If you have cultured unknown bacteria from human samples you are required to treat it as potentially pathogenic. If it is from a flu patient even more so. That, in turn, requires a biosafety 2 lab. Including a biosafety bench of the required safety level, for instance. Also blood-borne pathogen training (or equivalent) is normally required. So what you remember and what your advisor told you are bot correct according to current regulations (in the US and most, if not all parts of Europe).

 

Just out of curiosity Is your Prof really from a microbiology background? I find that kind of behavior odd, as in my personal experience microbiologists are more paranoid regarding biosafety than biotechs.

[HuStudent]

 

Just out of curiosity Is your Prof really from a microbiology background? I find that kind of behavior odd, as in my personal experience microbiologists are more paranoid regarding biosafety than biotechs.

Thank you for the reply! As far as I can tell she has a doctorate in biotechnology, but I think this might be the first time in an actual lab, she seems unsure of herself. My advisor told me the provost told her to stop what she was doing, but all of our plates are still in the lab. I have class again on Friday, so we'll see how it goes. Who oversees this stuff, OSHA?

 

 

 

[CharonY]

Well, IIRC the work with microbial agents follows guidelines from the CDC and NIH, whereas the occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogen standards is based on OSHA rules. The actual oversight is usually conducted by appointed laboratory safety persons in your department and usually there is a committee that oversees the university-wide implementation of the guidelines.

So basically for these kind of question you should find out who you appointed bio/labsafety guy is and as him/her.

[HuStudent]

Well, IIRC the work with microbial agents follows guidelines from the CDC and NIH, whereas the occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogen standards is based on OSHA rules. The actual oversight is usually conducted by appointed laboratory safety persons in your department and usually there is a committee that oversees the university-wide implementation of the guidelines.

So basically for these kind of question you should find out who you appointed bio/labsafety guy is and as him/her.

I'm at the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. It's been around for less than 5 years. There are only about 15 full time faculty. We don't have anyone in charge of safety. There are no deans. We do have a compliance officer, but nobody seems to know what he does. So as students, our only choice is to go to the Provost and he seems largely disinterested. I'm already working on transferring to Penn State at the end of this semester since the university recruiters and the Prof in question told me there was a degree in food science at HU (not so, it's a Food Safety degree.)

 

 

 

[CharonY]

This is odd. In smaller institutes I worked in usually a faculty member is appointed to be in charge of lab safety, whereas in bigger ones there are sometimes positions dedicated to it. The absence of any such person is most likely against regulations. Also, at least on the grad level and above (i.e. for people working in labs) safety classes are mandatory. The question is where they get them. If the university is so small the chances are that someone in some department may be responsible. But if that is somewhat obscure, the job is not being done well, I assume.

 

 

Of course it should not be the job of students to identify safety violations in the first place.

Edited October 19, 2011 by CharonY