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| Task or scenario | Hazard/s | Associated harm | Existing risk controls | Current risk rating | Additional risk controls? | Residual risk rating? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instrument operation | Electrocution | Contact with electricity can cause electric shock and burns | Routine instrument maintenance - to ensure instrument is in good condition and cabling is not damaged. Electrical equipment annual testing. Educate users to check for visible liquid leaks. Safety circuit breakers and fuses on instrument to prevent general electrocution due to instrument failure, especially in the presence of liquid. Emergency power off button located in laboratories to disconnects power to the red power points and not the blue uninterruptible power points. | low | ||
| Contact/exposure with biohazardous materials | Exposure to biohazardous material can cause health issues | PPE while emptying waste tank and adding bleach to waste tank. Engineering control - SIP sheath cover installed to prevent dripping from LSRII and Fortessa in addition to high walled drip tray. Ensure users and support technicians are familiar with risk assessment and SWP for the material used. PPE – gloves, gown & enclosed shoes (P2 mask and safety glasses for all room users and signage for existing projects that require SIP removal) Users empty waste after completion of operation) with running water gently down the sink 100ml of bleach is added to the instrument waste container after emptying the waste (refer to SWP for detailed instruction) Biological spill kit - Access to emergency biological spill kit and/or cleaning equipment. Bleach decontamination of sample lines on cytometers done by all users of the cytometers. Project approval process. Handling samples (e.g. transferring, pipetting) in biological safety cabinet. | low | |||
Manual handling (i.e. lifting, transferring) heavy weight such as waste tank | Manual handling can result in injuries of the back, neck, shoulders, arms or other body parts | Providing information and training to workers on manual handling tasks and request for assistance options Maximum possible weight for tanks is <10kg | low | |||
| Failure to adhere to SWP | Exposure to laser | High power lasers used in instruments can cause skin/eye damage/burns | Use laser safety shielding at all times - to prevent avoid laser exposure. Do not disengage automatic shutters – electronically or mechanically activated when certain covers are open. Educate users not to circumvent shutters and to avoid looking into any exposed lasers or reflections as laser light can be invisible. Laser safety shielding - to prevent avoid laser exposure. | low | ||
| Operating instrument | Manual handling – pinch hazard | Injury to hand | Education – Providing information, demonstrating and observing proper instrument use while loading samples on the CantoII during training to avoid pinching Instrument hardware monitoring for failed tube load. | low | ||
Handling hazardous chemical including Bleach, cleaning solutions, Decon/Contrad, Ethanol, QC beads | Hazardous substance exposure | Eye exposure causing eye damage Contact with skin can cause irritation or burn | Safety goggles are provided for researchers and recommended for use in the lab. Emergency showers & eye wash stations available. Chemical spill kit available in shared lab J.2.06. PPE – gloves, gown & enclosed shoes are necessary for working in the laboratory. SDS available to users to ensure awareness of relevant chemical hazards and emergency procedures. | low | ||
Sample handling | Contact with bio-hazardous material | Exposure to bio-hazardous material | Handle samples in biosafety cabinet PPE – gloves, gown & enclosed shoes are necessary for working in the laboratory. Access to emergency biological spill kit and materials to clean up spills. | low | ||
| Exposure to sodium azide while performing QC | Exposure to toxic chemical | Acute toxicity | Introduce relevant hazards with SDS. Ensure PPE, i.e. Gloves are worn while handling the sample. Sodium azide is used for a minimal time during the quality control procedure. Ensure only minimum quantity (1 drop in 300uL) made each time quality control solution is made. Dual barrier protection (gloves, tube) & lid. | low | usage of nitrile gloves if possible - added protection | low |
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- Log in to PPMS screen locker.
- CytExpert should already be open (if it isn't start the software).
- Click new experiment from template.
- Navigate to the template folder and choose a template.
- Make a new experiment in the CytExpert Data Folder using the provided syntax.
- Initialise the instrument by clicking 'Initialise' if needed (if needed the button will be activated).
- Provide 50uL of sample to be counted (with or without facility provided DAPI - 5uL to be added is used). Samples can be provided in eppendorf tubes or 5mL FACS tubes. Templates are set to record 30 seconds of sample @30uL/min. this means 15uL of sample is used. These may be changed to suit your experiment.
- Click 'Run' to start acquisition. Adjust the detector sensitivities if needed using the hand tool.
- Click 'Record' to record 15uL of sample (alternatively the 'Run' data is saved and can be used also).
- Adjust the gate to exclude debri. New gates can be drawn if needed.
- Extract the events per uL statistic from the template.
- If desired export the PDF - final workflow to be determined.
- Save your experiment.
- Log out of PPMS.
*the instrument is not shutdown by users. The instrument will enter a standby state after 10 minutes of inactivity
Cleaning the instrument
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*The instrument automatically rinses the SIP after each sample and therefore we have not setup a 'per use' cleaning procedure. However if there is a suspected instrument clog the following cleaning procedure (that will be run as a preventative maintenance schedule) can be run.
- Select Daily Clean from the Cytometer menu.
- Follow the Daily Clean procedures, which consist of:
- Run FlowClean cleaning fluid for 3 minutes.
- Run DI water for 5 minutes.
- If necessary, empty the waste container.
- Remove the sample tube and store according to your laboratory procedures.
- Close the CytExpert software.
- Shut down the Workstation.
- Turn off the main power on the Cytometer.
Data management
- Under no circumstances should there be any patient/person identiable data recorded on the instruments as the data is not privately held and is accessible to all researchers.
- User data is deleted after 7 days off the instrument computers, it is the responsibility of the user to ensure data has been transferred to a secure location.
- If you would like your data accessible from outside of WIMR, a user specific share can be setup. This works by creating a copy of a specified folder on university provisioned storage that is shared with the user. This requires an email to wrhflow@sydney.edu.au and it is the users responsibility that all ethics approvals are complied with.
Notes
- We recommend your samples are filtered beforehand.Filtering your sample beforehand can prevent clumps and erroneous data.
- Violet SSC provides better resolution for smaller particles and hence many templates trigger off violet SSC.
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