Hello dear friends.
Well, we finally standardized GelRed dye and we want to decontaminate all the working area. We know that there is some protocols to follow to do this, but we don't know what protocol is the most effective, because all the equipment inside the working area (PCR, gel preparation, power supplys, transiluminator, and so on) is suspicious of been contaminated.
I read about using chlorine but we don't know if its the best way and how much nor the concentration of it, could someone help us get out of this?
Thank you very much!
Alex.
Don't use bleach as suggested by Frank. Use one handheld UV torch to locate the contaminated zones. Soak paper towels in soap water and wipe the contaminated area 5-6 times. Check again with the UV-torch. Dispose all the used paper towels and gloves in hazardous waste bags.
Do not use chlorine as this will modify EtBr and increase mutagenic activity. I hate to be the one to tell you that the best way is "Not to Contaminate anything with EtBr". I do understand the urgency of a EtBr contamination so I have attached an SOP with this correspondence and a second doc with the correspondence to follow. Are you talking about EtBr dust contamination from handling powder or EtBr contamination from spills? Se the attached protocols for appropriate clean up and remember, EtBr may never be completely removed from the work area post contamination so set EtBr work areas and increase handling safeguards with future use. On a positive not I'm glad to hear your method is working.
As promised decontamination solutions that inactivate and destroy EtBr. Make them up in a chemical fume hood. Clean up gross or suspected areas with wet absorbent cloth and water, repeat several times with decontamination solution, repeat several times again with water and absorbent cloth to remove decontamination solution.
The easiest way as I know is exposing the EtBr-contaminate stuffs under UV light. All of them will be degraded. Well, this method we always use in our lab, but just for destroying agarose gels. ^^
Don't use bleach as suggested by Frank. Use one handheld UV torch to locate the contaminated zones. Soak paper towels in soap water and wipe the contaminated area 5-6 times. Check again with the UV-torch. Dispose all the used paper towels and gloves in hazardous waste bags.
Usally, I do not the EtBr in my work where I use the more safety stain....
I am agreed with above suggestions specially Soumen and Frank.. Its better to use UV torch and wipe the place with detergent and then ethanol and again check the area under uv torch after cleaning, but you should take precaution like wearing of gloves and other safety equipments..
Thank you everybody, we're going to try this weekend to start cleaning, maybe we'll need the entire week to do it, Its a 3x3 room. Its a very good idea that about UV light, and the cleaning methods. Thank you very much again!
Artur, thank you for the editorial heads up. I'll correct our documents and no I did not catch the inconsistency.
Alejandro, could you please tell me what method you ended up with to wipe out EtBr-contaminated area or equipment?
Dear NN,
as I have found out - in addition to the acknowledged solutions given by my fore-Posters- that there is a lot of threads concerning (including handling disposal and decontamination) I just would like to point you to the following possibility:
find in the (RG-site) black task line "Search" (right to "JOBS", usually displaying "RESEARCHERS", Click on the stylized "person"-icon and find the drop down menue/click "QUESTIONS". The search window for / in questions will appear, searchj for e.g. "ethidium" or "ethidium bromide" and voila, you can choose what you need/want... (this said only because I often forgot about that posibility!)
As a safety consideration, personally I would add also that people working with that stuff (there are "safer" alternatives for EthBr nowadays) might be on risk if using only LATEX gloves during their work (even if "only" decontaminating). Tests at the Works-Safety Council/department at the University of Freiburg/Germany revealed that the usually worn thin one-way-gloves made from Latex are penetrated very easily and rapidly by EthBr: 1% solution in about 30 sceonds, 0.1% solution within about 60 sec!
Therefore it is strongly recommended to use gloves made at least from nitrile which did not show penetration issues on similar test conditions.
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