Hi,

I'm just curious to see how different labs deal with ethidium bromide. I worked at a lab in Europe where we took very few precautions, apart from wearing gloves and segragating the gel waste from other waste. We used the same pipettes for preparing gels that we used for everything else, and there was no special section of the lab set aside for EtBr. However, in my new lab, there are a lot more precautions about it - there is a separate gel room, and great care is taken (changing gloves, etc) to ensure that EtBr isn't brought into the general lab area. It's starting to make me think maybe we were too lax in my old lab! Just curious to see what the situiation is in other labs. Thanks!

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hi
Bet is my nightmare in the lab... So i change gloves after touching gel, cast or other. But people in my lab are not so afraid. They touch gel and pipette just after without changing glove. Everyone is dong as he thinks. But i'm the only that afraid by etbr.

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hi,

In my lab we have a seperate area, pippetes, tips etc to use for EtBr and we change gloves. but often one careless person who does not charge gloves can cause havoc.

We are actually in the midst of changing to a Non EtBr DNA staining agent - has anyone tried that?

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Ethidium bromide is not that dangerous. It has become a bit of a myth that touching it is certain death. Chloroform is actually much more of a problem - it is one of the few known human carcinogens- and don't even get me started on phenol

Daniel

Longer automated DNA sequencing reads

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While my lab is trying to move away from EtBr... it is also true that EtBr is light sensitive (hence it comes in the dark bottle) and is pretty harmless once exposed to light!

that said, in a lab i beleive in better safe than sorry! so we all might as well be safe - EtBr..chloroform or phenol just to mention a few...

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In the lab I'm in at the moment we have the EtBr stuff in the PCR room off the main lab, but people donh't always change gloves after handeling it and the EtBr itself is stored with our volatiles.
In the last lab I was in my supervisor handeled EtBr gels with his bare hands (usually saying "you mustn't do this" while carrying the gel).

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Reminds me of my Biochem lab instructor back in college who poured acrylamide gels with his bare hands - saying the exact same thing...

Back on topic, I read somewhere that the affinity for EtBr binding to protein is higher than to DNA. If true, it would likely be pretty harmless if it were sequestered in the dead cells on your skin.

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Hi!

Here in my lab we use nitrile gloves and all the material to prepare and run gels is only used to do that. Every day we work with EtBr and the continuous exposure to this reagent might bring you some health problems.

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I just carry the gels in my hand... though EtBr looks dangerous gel looks cute to me .. so I just forget!!

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I was getting worried at first reading this, but I agree with above, EtBr is a mutagen because it intercalates in DNA and then when cells replicate their DNA the intercalated EtBr causes misreading and mutations are created, since your dead skin cells never divide, there should be no mutations created... The only problem would be if it penetrates the dead skin layer and reaches dividing cells, or if you were to like drink it
In my lab, we do not worry too much about it, I wear gloves when handling gels, but if it happens to touch my skin I wouldn't have a heart attack

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