UCI Office of Environmental Health and Safety
Guidance for Safe Handling Neuromuscular/Neurotoxic Agents in Animals
Scope
This document describes safe handling procedures for chemical agents identified by Material
Safety Data Sheet to cause neuromuscular toxicity at the point of administration but are inactivated
in vivo. The following are of some of the agents covered by this document:
Associated Hazards1
 Central nervous system stimulant
 Epileptogenic
Pentylenetetrazol (PTZ)
 Toxic to lungs
 Nervous system toxicity
1
Based on acute exposure studies in animals.
Chemical Agent
Kainic Acid
II. Environmental and Personnel Check
1. Identify critical locations in your surroundings including:
 Emergency Shower and eyewash
 Telephone with list of important phone numbers provided
2. Identify hazardous conditions that might cause
 Slips, trips and falls
 Obstruction of walkway
 Obstruction of hand and arm movements
 Confined spaces
3. All tasks having potential for exposure (dose preparation, injection) are to be performed
by trained staff who must have read the MSDS (http://www.ehs.uci.edu/msds.html)
III. Preparing Kainic Acid
1. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
 Clothing that covers entire body including close-toed shoes
 Regularly laundered lab coat
 9-6 ml thick Nitrile gloves or two layers of regular nitrile gloves. NO LATEX
2. Preparing working solutions
 All work involving Kainic Acid crystals or powder needs to be done inside a ventilated fume
hood. Please inspect the fume hood is currently certified and produces negative air
pressure.
 Use metal spatulas or other apparatus to limit spills, or aerosolizations
 Use filter paper when weighing the agent
 Cover the surface of the hood with absorbant covers and discard following use
 Prepare only enough solution for the immediate activity to limit production of extra volume
3. Injecting Animals
 Injections must be performed by trained personnel wearing all PPE mentioned above
 Animals should be restrained or sedated prior to injection
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Working in pairs is reccomended when injecting any animals with a toxic agent.
Syringes for injection must be safety engineered (self-sheathing syringes)
Extra volume should be collected and disposed as chemical hazard waste
IV. Animal care and handling 24 hours post-injection
1. No special handling is needed for animal bedding.
V. Hazardous Waste Management
1. Expired, unwanted, surplus or rinsate of kainic acid must be disposed of as hazardous chemical
waste.
2. All contaminated animal carcasses need to be disposed of as “pathology waste”
3. Sharps must be disposed of in a standard sharps container.
4. EH&S hazardous waste collection requests and guidelines are available online at
http://www.ehs.uci.edu/programs/enviro/.
5. To request hazardous waste containers including; hazardous chemical waste, biomedical waste,
pathology waste, or sharps containers please call EH&S at (949) 824-4578. At UCIMC locations,
contact Mealii Seanoa at kseanoa@uci.edu for pathology waste incineration barrels.
VI. In case of Exposure
1. In case of skin exposure, remove contaminated clothing and wash skin with soap
and water. Avoid rubbing skin or increasing its temperature.
2. In case of eye exposure: Irrigate immediately with water for 15 minutes. Obtain
opthamological evaluation if irritation persists.
3. In case of ingestion: Refer to physician.
4. Inhalation: Remove victim to clean air. Contact 911 if difficulty in breathing. Refer
to physician.
5. Report all exposures to supervisor within 24 hours.
6. Complete the online incident report form at www.ehs.uci.edu
As the Principal Investigator, it is your responsibility to ensure that all individuals listed in this
protocol are taught correct procedures for the safe handling of hazardous materials involved in this
study. It is also your responsibility to assure that your personnel attend Lab Core Safety Training
and other applicable safety training courses. This standard operating procedure maybe modified to
fit the needs of your research protocol.
Both PI and all persons associated with the protocol must sign the following acknowledgement:
I have read, asked questions, and understand the hazards of and safe working procedures
for the activity/materials described herein.
PI Signature:
DATE
Other Personnel:
Name/ Signature
DATE