In my profession, I have been in laboratories that are Biosafety level 1, 2 or 3. A BSL2 lab poses a moderate risk to personnel who enter the lab. The type of bacteria or viruses used in this lab are potentially harmful and require adequate amount of risk management to be observed.
I work for a company that deals with radiation seeds. Radiation is considered a physical hazard. If we do not utilize personal protective equipment as well as thick shields while handling these seeds we can expose ourselves to radiation. Not following protocols increases the possibility of harm to our bodies and can cause sickness.
I worked in a Microbiology Lab. There were many potential hazardous situations. It was very important for us to clean the lab with bleach and alcohol solutions. A hazard would be Listeria monocytogenes contamination and the harm would be a lab acquired infection. This hazard would result in medium risk to lab personnel.
A patient is fitted for their first back brace following a scoliosis diagnosis. However during that fitting, the prosthetist/orthotist had incorrectly written the waist measurement to be significantly smaller than the patient’s true waist size. The back brace now poses a mechanical hazard to the patient as the brace is not truly representative of the patient's true body shape. The patient would be in a hazardous situation if they were to wear the brace over a long period of time. Long-term wear of an ill-fitting brace could lead to harm to the patient, specifically bruises.
I currently work in an in vivo lab and can think of several hazards in a hazardous situation with a specific harm. We often have certain test subjects that undergo doses of radiation and other test articles. The main hazards are being exposed to said radiation or being bit by a subject that has been exposed to the radiation. Fortunately there are several protocols that must be followed that help manage these hazards.
In a hypothetical situation at Cyberdyne Systems, a biotechnology firm, they encounter a critical issue in their biosecurity laboratory. The lab, which focuses on gene therapy research, houses various infectious agents, including a specially engineered influenza strain. During a routine maintenance session, a lab technician inadvertently damages a containment unit, leading to an unnoticed leak of the influenza virus. This breach escalates into a hazardous situation when, a couple of days later, several employees start showing flu-like symptoms. It becomes evident that they have contracted the modified, highly contagious influenza strain. This results in a minor outbreak within the company, affecting other staff and their family members, thereby underscoring the crucial importance of robust safety measures and emergency protocols in such high-risk research environments.
