150 points
SECTION ONE: Introduction to Biohazards (50 points)
Please provide short answers to the following:
1. (3 pts) LIST one organization that sets guidelines for the safe handling of biohazardous agents.
Organization: ______ CDC or NIH ____________
2. (9 pts) LIST three types of non-research employees who have a risk of getting a laboratory-acquired infection AND provide a scenario by which the infection could have been acquired. (i.e. What safety rules would have been violated?)
Non-research employee: 1 pt
Scenario by which infection was aquired: 2 pts
Non-research employee: 1 pt
Scenario by which infection was aquired:
Non-research employee: 1 pt
Scenario by which infection was aquired:
2 pts
2 pts
3. (6 pts) List THREE types of personal containment you have used in this course.
1.
2 pts each: examples: standard micro., wearing a lab coat, washing hands, etc._
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2.
_________________________________
3.
_________________________________
4. (6 pts) List THREE types of physical containment you have used in this course.
1.
___2 pts each: fume hood, gloves, goggles, labcoat___
2.
___________________________________
3.
___________________________________
5. (6 pts) What happens if you put a hot inoculating loop into a bacterial culture?
(Think in biosafety terms.) Why should this consequence be avoided?
Produces aerosols. To be avoided because inhalation is most common way of being exposed to biohazards.
6. (5 pts) The E. coli strain that we used in lab is non-pathogenic. To what biosafety level does it belong?
BSL-1
7. (5 pts) Suppose you are working with a BSL-2 agent and need to perform a procedure that is likely to produce aerosols. What special precaution should you take?
Use biological safety cabinet
8. (5 pts) EXPLAIN why BSL-3 facilities are maintained at negative air pressure.
So when door opens, air FLOWS IN and decreases likelihood of carrying biohazards outside of lab.
9. (5 pts) A researcher is called to a zoo to try to determine why 25% of the chimpanzee population is dying. The researcher is given a sample of chimpanzee tissue from one of the dead animals. He intends to examine the tissue using an electron microscope to search for viruses. At what biosafety level should he operate and WHY?
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BSL-4. Unknown agent that infects primates
SECTION TWO : Biosafety laboratory exercises (50 points)
1. (6 pts) What is a disinfectant?
Chemicals that kill pathogenic microorganisms and other hazardous particles
2. (5 pts) What types of organisms are MOST resistant to disinfectants?
Bacterial spores
3. (9 pts) COMPARE sanitization, disinfection, and sterilization.
Sanitization: General reduction of number of microbes on surface (3 pts)
Disinfection: Removal of all or almost all pathogens on a surface (3 pts)
Sterilization: Killing of all organisms on a surface (3 pts)
4. (6 pts) List TWO qualities of an ideal disinfectant.
1. Works against many types of microorganisms (3 pts for each of two)
2. Water-soluble
3. Low toxicity
4. Inexpensive
5. (9 pts) List THREE ways that bioaerosols may be generated in the lab.
1.
(3 pts per way) Pouring, pipetting, stirring, opening tubes etc.
2.
_______________________________________________________
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3.
_______________________________________________________
6. (15 pts) Recall your laboratory experiment with gel electrophoresis. For the following sections of the protocol, list the hazards associated. Discuss what precautions were taken to minimize the risk from each hazard.
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Preparation of agarose gel
(2 pts) burning self with hot agarose
(1 pts) use hot hands
Running electrophoresis
(2 pts) risk of electrocution
(1 pt) keep lid on box
Staining agarose gel
(1 pts) exposure to ethidium bromide
(1 pt) wear gloves
(1 pt) dedicated lab bench
Viewing agarose gel
(2 pt) UV light (1 pt) goggles, and self-contained UV light box that is only on when lid is closed
SECTION THREE: Types of Microorganisms (50 pts)
1. (12 pts) Fungi are omnipresent. List THREE hazards that are associated with working with these biohazards.
1.
(4 pts) Mycosis
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2.
(4 pts) Toxicity____
3.
(4 pts) Allergies_____________
2. (8 pts) When working with viruses, list TWO factors that vary from virus to virus that you would consider when determining the appropriate level of caution to exercise.
1.
(4 pts) ease of transmission
2. (4 pts) seriousness of illness
3. (8 pts) Give two examples of oncogenic viruses.
1.
(4 pts each of two) Papilloma virus, herpes virus, Epstein-Barr, Hepatitis B and C_________
2. _________________________
4. (8 pts) Provide TWO reasons that a particular virus might be classified as oncogenic.
1.
(4 pts each of two)
2. __________________________________________________________
Moderate risk viruses are those that:
1. Have been found in human cancers
2. Those that cause cancer in other primates
3. Those that cause cancer in non-primate mammals
4. Those that can transform human cell culture
5. (8 pts) Why does primary cell culture pose a greater theoretical health risk to workers than work with established cell lines?
Less well characterized, don’t know what you are working with yet.
6. (6 pts) What are “zoonotic” diseases?
diseases that can be passed between different species.
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