Ethidium Bromide - (Oct/19/2005 )

Hi there...

I may sound a bit paranoid, but whats the harm in asking. I recently handled a door handle without gloves in one of the rooms that have people using ethidium bromide... usually i would wear gloves but i forgot at that time, and i would assume some pepople might have gotten some ethidium bromide on the handle....i washed my hands straight away though... im kinda worried if damage have been done eventhough it wasnt even a direct contact with ethidium bromide ...talk bout being paranoid. anyone mind answering?

Paranoid person

A good dialogue about this is below
http://www.protocol-online.org/forums/inde...indpost&p=21811

you can always go back and shine a UV light on the doorknob and see if it's actually contaminated

yeah..thats a good idea, but would washing my hand be enuff? If it was contaminated, i dont think it was enuff to cause any harm.. because if u think bout it, the lab coats we wear might be contaminated also, not to mention our shoes and trousers as well..haha

paranoid

It's good to be concerned about stuff in the lab, mamabosan -- there's some nasty stuff there...

I personally think EtBr is way over-rated as a hazard. Sure, it intercalates DNA, but that will only be an issue with replicating DNA, and replicating DNA is denatured anyway. Further, the fact that it might be present in replicating DNA does not make it an automatic mutagen, and if by some small chance a mutation did occur, that mutation would have to be cancerous to be problematic (the vast majority of mutations are not cancerous), and the cell would have to remain around (surface skin cells slough off).

Moreover, before any of this could even occur, the dye would need to penetrate the cell and the nucleus to even get to the DNA; I'm not certain if this even occurs...

Also, empirical evidence argues against it being much of a hazard. Consider that it has been used (very frequently in a lackadaisical manner) world-wide for many, many years -- if it was all that hazardous, we'd be hearing a lot of horror stories about EtBr-induced cancer, but I've never heard one such story in a couple of decades of doing research.

That said, I still wear gloves when handling it and gels which have been soaked in it, more from force of habit than anything else, I guess.

If you washed your hands (which you should do routinely anyway when working in a lab), my opinion is you've got nothing at all to worry about...

hi
EtBr is hydrophilic molecule, so a good hand wash will do the job. And don't be that afraid. Cornead layer of the skin is normally impermeable...
fred

There is no need to panic. Human body itself has a very strong repair system. Trust that system. There is no harm in precaution but also there is no need of worry in one exposure.
best wishes
amit

Hi there...

I may sound a bit paranoid, but whats the harm in asking. I recently handled a door handle without gloves in one of the rooms that have people using ethidium bromide... usually i would wear gloves but i forgot at that time, and i would assume some pepople might have gotten some ethidium bromide on the handle....i washed my hands straight away though... im kinda worried if damage have been done eventhough it wasnt even a direct contact with ethidium bromide ...talk bout being paranoid. anyone mind answering?

Paranoid person