Thursday, March 14, 2013

Safety in the Biorepository


The biorepository is a very valuable asset to Windber Research Institute (WRI), and because of the importance of our samples we take every measure possible to insure safety of samples as well as our personnel. WRI has an active safety committee whose purpose is to bring workers and management together in a cooperative effort to promote safety and health in the workplace.  It is important for each department to be represented and we have several members of the tissue bank on WRI’s safety committee. The committee is formed by lab staff and managers representing at least one member from each department.  The safety committee’s job is to ensure proper lab and workplace safety is being practiced. As members of the committee, we participate in safety inspections of the building and check all areas for safety violations. These inspections are very important and help us to identify existing and potential hazards and recommend corrective action. We check lab equipment, emergency supplies and evacuation plans.

Because operation of a biorepository can potentially expose employees to hazards, it is important for everyone to be involved in training and education activities.  Our biorepository receives annual safety training and participates in periodic educational activities for things such as the safe handling and use of liquid nitrogen, proper personal protective equipment, etc.

Members of the Tissue Bank participate in training for the safe packaging and transport of dangerous goods. The packaging and shipment training helps keep us up to date according to national and international regulations.

Not only is the safety of our staff important, it is critical that we take measures to protect the biospecimens. We have comprehensive standard operating procedures covering everything from physical security and backup power, to monitoring and maintenance of storage equipment and troubleshooting.  We constantly strive to put procedures into place and ensure they are followed with the ultimate goal of protecting our most valuable resource – the biospecimens!