Re: [DIYbio] Re: Something is Rotten in Denmark

When it comes to assumptions around safety they should always err on the side of caution. Assuming that something is safe when there is little to no evidence would be irresponsible. The community has raised real concerns with your project and they have done so because of a lack of and (as we are learning from your emails) wrong information on your website. It is a lack of transparency/documentation of your safety considerations that has caused these concerns to be raised. People are making assumptions because you have not published adequate information about how you are conducting this experiment safely in an improvised laboratory environment. From the information available it appears that your work environment for this project was likely not BSL-2 nor BSL-1 compliant (though that could very well be wrong). Community trust can be earned through transparency and reputation. You are opting to remain anonymous which makes documentation even more important.

I'm personally very excited to see more biohacking projects like this and don't want to discourage anyone from working on them, and I really do understand the need for some to remain anonymous, but we are all trying to hold each-other accountable when it comes to safe laboratory practices, so it'd be really great if there were just a few sentences to the effect that trained individuals are leading the work, that safety training for all individuals will be / was provided, that an appropriate BSL 1 or 2 space was improvised for the project, and that of course none of the materials were ever to be ingested. It doesn't take much, just a bit of clear communication around safety and a point of contact for biosafety inquiries.