Documents laboratory work 30 results

"The WHO Laboratory Biosafety Manual (LBM) has been in broad use at all levels of clinical and public health laboratories, and other biomedical sectors globally, serving as a de facto global standard that presents best practices and sets trends in biosafety.
LBM encouraged countries to accept and implement basic concepts in biological safety and to develop national codes of practice for the safe handling of biological agents in laboratories within their geographical borders.
This fourth edition of the manual builds on the risk assessment framework introduced in the third edition. A thorough, evidence-based and transparent assessment of the risks allows safety measures to be balanced with the actual risk of working with biological agents on a case-by-case basis.
This novel evidence- and risk-based approach will allow optimised resource use and sustainable laboratory biosafety and biosecurity policies and practices that are relevant to their individual circumstances and priorities, enabling equitable access to clinical and public health laboratory tests and biomedical research opportunities without compromising safety."

"Since no occupational accidents or diseases have been attributed specifically to the use of constructions containing recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (rDNA), this paper evaluates the occupational health risks in industries utilizing genetically manipulated organisms mainly on the basis of theoretical considerations. Bacteria, filamentous fungi, yeasts, and mammalian cells in culture are in use. For each of these systems the possible hazards are considered. Concerning microbial production systems, infections are regarded as the main problem, but the risk of infection is considered extremely low. As for cells in culture, only dormant viruses are regarded as problematic, but well-defined production cell lines should not contain such undetected and dangerous viruses. Overall, the additional risks posed by rDNA-modified micro-organisms are minor. Only long-term observations can, however, confirm this assumption, and consequently the highest feasible containment measures should still be used in the years to come."

"This documentary account of workers routinely exposed to chemicals on the job is based on 75 interviews with chemical operatives, maintenance workers, technicians in chemical, pharmaceutical, food processing and industrial plants, laboratory technicians, fire fighters, and railroad and health care workers. Topics covered include: the jobs and the risks involved with chemicals; illnesses, fears and responsibility; protection, adaptation and action; recourse in the case of hazards; controlling risks on the job."

"Après l'évaluation des risques professionnels faite par l'employeur, le service de santé au travail (SST) a un rôle essentiel en matière de conseil sur les mesures de prévention à mettre en place dans les entreprises. Dans les laboratoiresd'analyse, les laboratoires de recherche, la fabrication ou la reconstitution de médicaments cytotoxiques, l'assemblage de pièces électroniques..., l'utilisation d'enceintes ventilées peut être nécessaire. En fonction des caractéristiques propres à chacune d'entre elles, le SST pourra adapter au mieux ses recommandations en matière de prévention des risques chimiques et biologiques en fonction de la situation de travail concernée."

"Although some regulatory frameworks for the occupational health and safety of nanotechnology workers have been developed, worker safety and health issues in these laboratory environments have received less attention than many other areas of nanotechnology regulation. In addition, workers in nanotechnology labs are likely to face unknown risks and hazards because few of the guidelines and rules for worker safety are mandatory. In this article, we provide an overview of the current health and safety guidelines for nanotechnology laboratory workers by exploring guidelines from different organizations, including the Department of Energy Nanoscale Science Research Centers (DOE-NSRC), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Texas A&M University (TAMU), and University of Massachusetts-Lowell (UML). After discussing these current guidelines, we apply an ethical framework to each set of guidelines to explore any gaps that might exist in them. By conducting this gap analysis, we are able to highlight some of the weaknesses that might be important for future policy development in this area. We conclude by outlining how future guidelines might address some of these gaps, specifically the issue of workers' participation in the process of establishing safety measures and the development and enforcement of more unified (and mandatory) guidelines."

"This article presents an ethnographic exploration of resistance to teamworking in a UK research and development laboratory named RDL. It focuses on the nature of autonomy and responsibility and the implications for resistance. It finds that resistance is shaped by the laboratory technicians' individualistic interactions with technology, the laboratory layout and the technicians' desire for personal task-related autonomy and individual responsibility rather than team-based accountability. However, although resistance is linked to an individualistic interpretation of work it is supported by collective collusion. The article also finds that resistance is not necessarily anti-work. It is simultaneously oriented towards the interests of the company and individual technicians through the technicians' desire to perform their job well. Finally, the article demonstrates the local and constructed nature of resistance."

"Nei laboratori biochimici la radiazione UV è largamente utilizzata, in particolare negli studi di fotochimica e fotobiologia, come agente sterilizzante e per la caratterizzazione dei campioni mediante varie tecniche. Nel presente lavoro si presentano i risultati della verifica, condotta presso vari laboratori biochimici, al fine di valutare i livelli di esposizione a radiazione UV non coerente e di rischio per i ricercatori e gli studenti, che le misure mostrano essere tutt'altro che trascurabile, qualora non fossero impiegate le procedure corrette ed i dispositivi di protezione individuale."