Departmental Refresher – Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya

The refresher on laboratory safety and good laboratory practices of the Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine was held on 12/01/2018 at the Community Medicine tutorial room with the participation of academic staff, non-academic staff and the postgraduate students of the Faculty of Medicine.

After an initial talk by Dr. Nilanthi Dissanayake, Head, Department of Microbiology on the importance of the event, a test to assess the knowledge of the staff on general laboratory practices was given. The questions were based on the content taught in the previous year by the members of the Academic Staff. Following that Prof Faseeha Noordeen delivered a talk on “good laboratory practices” which was translated to Sinhalese by Dr. Nilanthi and Dr. Veranja. Following that Dr. Chandika Gamage gave a talk on Laboratory safety. This generated a lively discussion on the use of mobile phones in the laboratories. After a tea break, Dr. Chamara Jayasundara from the Department of Chemistry delivered a lecture on Chemical safety. As the final event, the performance at the test was discussed.

In addition, two decisions were taken at the meeting.

1) Use of mobile phones during lab procedures is not allowed. Staff or students must stop the lab work, wash hands and attend to the call in case of emergencies or attend to the call at the end of the lab work.

2) Use of gloves when handling doors of rooms/laboratories/fridges and incubators are not allowed.