Handling and Confinement

 

In order to deal with this issue of confinement, we use a vial having a silicon septum, thus allowing us to inject a water sample inside the vial containing the bioreporter while keeping the system confined. Indeed, the hole resorbs after the needle is retracted, thus leaving no room for contact between the environment and the GMO; this diagram illustrates this:

Here’s how this vial actually looks like:

 

This vial was chosen because of its confinement properties and because it has already been used in another similar project called ARSOlux which was approved by the German authorities. We’ll come back on how we used this as an important argument for the validation of our prototype by the Swiss authorities.  

Extra care will be taken to avoid contact between the tip of the syringe and the bioreporter to avoid contamination of the syringe. After use, for safety reasons, the syringe is put in a syringe container like this one:

After the measurement of arsenic concentration, the cells in the vial are, at first, partially neutralized with alcohol before being brought back to the lab for destruction by autoclaving or inactivation by a hypochlorite solution.

Also, all manipulations with the vials containing the GMO are done over a retention tank to avoid any contamination of the environment if the vial would fall and break.

With all the aforementioned precautions taken, we can say that the use of our system is not considered to present a potential hazard to humans, animals and the environment.

 

Here’s a list of the elements you’ll need:

Where to get it: http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/product/supelco/cb_000572?lang=en&region

Price: CHF 26.88 for a 100 vials

 

Where to get it: http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/product/supelco/27018?lang=en&region

Price: CHF 92.4 for a 100 caps

 

Where to get it: http://www.bd.com/hypodermic/products/safetyinjection/

Price: Varies depending on the model chosen; from 30 $ to 80 $ for a 100 syringes.

 

Where to find it: You can find several online. We’d like to thank Dr. Sabrina Leuenberger for supplying one for free.

Price: ~ CHF 15

 

Where to get it: It’s just a plastic box, look around you.

Price: Not much

 

_______________________________________

Total price: ~ CHF 180 for a 100 samples

Let’s note that this amount can be reduced by choosing cheaper elements. Their might also be a way to reuse some of these elements if they are properly cleaned from all GMO after usage.

 

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