Question: Do you ever get ill from working with the bacteria?? :)

Emma Trantham answered on 24 Jun 2012:

Not yet (touch wood)!

Seriously though, in the lab there are lots of precautions in place to stop us from catching dangerous bacteria: we wear labcoats and gloves; benches and equipment are cleaned down at the end of every session with antibacterial cleaning agents; even though we’ve been wearing gloves we always wash our hands on leaving the lab; and if we are ever doing something that means we might be spraying bacteria into the air we do it in a special cabinet that sucks air in and upwards which means that the bacteria are only every sucked away from us.

There are even more special precautions if you work with more dangerous bacteria (the bacteria in my lab do cause diseases in people but they are not as dangerous as some bacteria which can kill people).

I am far more likely to get ill from bacteria by eating undercooked/badly prepared food or from playing with my/other people’s pets than from my work!