Practical Hygiene Guidelines for Experiments with Human Subjects

==Practical hygiene guidelines for experiments with human subjects For the biophysics labs (DCN, FNWI)== V6 20200828

Based on: RadboudUMC hospital guidelines for non-COVID outpatients

Scope: these guidelines are suitable for experiments with any subjects allowed as defined by the different post-lockdown phase.

General instructions

Triage

Always check yourself and your subject for possible Covid-19 symptoms. Ask the following questions. If the answer of one of these is ‘yes’, you cannot perform the experiment or your subject my not come to the lab. (see https://www.rivm.nl/coronavirus-covid-19/werk/contactberoepen for the questions in Dutch)

• In the past 24 hours, did you experience one of more of the following (mild) symptoms: a cold, running nose, sneezing, sore throat, mild cough, shortness of breath, elevated temperature, fever and/or sudden loss of smell or taste?
• Currently, does any of your housemates or family members have fever and/or shortness of breath?
• Did you have covid-19 infection and has this been confirmed with a laboratory test in the past 7 days?
• Do any of your housemates or family members have covid-19 (confirmed with a laboratory test) and have you been in contact with this housemate/family member in the last 14 days when he/she still had symptoms?
• Are you in quarantine because you have been in direct contact with someone with covid-19?

Minimize physical contact and keep distance

• Keep 1.5m distance if possible
• Subjects can sometimes (be instructed to) place some lab equipment without physical contact by researcher (e.g. coil glasses)

Wear a face mask in the labs when more than one person is present

This is a new RIVM guideline since 28 August 2020. The ventilation system in our labs recirculates part of the air. This imposes a chance infection.

Wear a face mask and observe hand hygiene if physical contact or breaking the distance rule is unavoidable

• Follow the instructions for proper hand hygiene below
• Follow the instructions for correct use of face mask below
• Try to minimize face-to-face contact and ask subjects to face away from you when possible

Use a face shield when close physical contact is required for > 3 minutes

• e.g. placing EEG/NIRS electrodes
• when using a face shield, wearing a face mask is not required.

Keep your workplace clean at all times

• Disinfect surfaces according to instructions below

Multiple test subjects on one day

• Allow half an hour between scheduling test subjects to disinfect the setup and possibly to air the room.

In general, just use your common sense!  

Specific instructions

Proper hand hygiene

• Wear short-sleeves
• Do not wear a watch or jewelry
• Wash hands with soap
  • After lunch/coffee break or toilet visit
  • If hands are visibly dirty
• Disinfect your hands with alcohol
  • before entering the experimental room
  • before and after physical contact with your test subjects
  • between different test subjects – even if there is no physical contact
  • after sneezing or (accidentally) touching your face
• Instruct your test subjects to disinfect their hands with alcohol before entering the experimental room
• in case of (small) wounds on your hands, cover them with water resistant band aid or use gloves (when using gloves, remove them after physical contact with your test subject by only touching the inside of the gloves and disinfect your hands afterwards)
• Optionally, wear a short-sleeved lab coat (e.g. for EEG experiments when physical contact for long time is necessary). Roll up sleeves, and use only 1 lab coat a day.

Hand disinfection routine

• Put ±3 ml alcohol on dry hands
• Clean entire hand: palms – backs – fingertips – thumbs - wrists
• rub for at least 30 seconds until the hands are dry
• Instructional poster is available in the lab

Putting on a face mask

• Both researcher and subject should wear a face mask if physical contact is unavoidable
• Give your test subject instructions so they can put on the mask themselves
• Disinfect your hands first
• Colored (blue) side is the outside
• Extend the mask
• Put on the mask, the wire on the top side
• Loops behind the ears
• Press the wire firmly on the nose
• Check if the mask is fitted properly: warm air should not go up/no condensation on glasses

Removing a face mask

• Do not touch the front side of the mask
• Throw the mask in trash bin immediately
• Disinfect your hands

Handling a face shield

• Attach a new elastic band to the face shield (or when using frequently: make a personal band and write your name on it)
• put on and remove the face shield by touching the elastic band and/or the earpieces
• remove the elastic band (and store for personal use) and clean the shield with rubbing alcohol

Clean workspace routine

• Toggle the clean/dirty switch to dirty, when first entering the lab room
• Subjects wear a clean lab coat when they sit in setups that are difficult to clean, like e.g. the vestibular stimulator.
• Disinfect any surfaces touched by your experimental subjects with tissue + rubbing alcohol after each measurement
  • These include (non-exhaustive)
    • Face shield
    • Experimental chair
    • Eye- and head-tracking equipment
    • Pads of earphones
    • NIRS equipment
    • Etc. Use common sense
• Materials that cannot be cleaned with alcohol (e.g. EEG/NIRS cap, Xsens shirt) should be washed with water and soap, and dried in the air afterward (a drying rack will be available in the EEG-NIRS lab).

(Some labs use Sekusept Plus for washing EEG caps. Disinfection characteristics of this solution are defined for bacteria as well as for viruses. The drawback is, that Sekusept is an aggressive chemical that should be handled with care. Our EEG caps are made of a material not suitable for washing in Sekusept)

• Disinfect any surfaces that only you touch should be disinfected at the end of your work session
  • These include (non-exhaustive)
    • Your desk
    • Keyboard and mouse
    • Any buttons
• Toggle the clean/dirty switch to ‘clean’ after you have finished disinfection and leave the experimental room

Dirty laundry

• Worn lab coats and used towels go in the laundry baskets in -2.002/-2.002a. Plastic bags with dirty laundry have to be collected on Monday in the central hall of the Huygens at level -1, at the right side of the glass elevator. IHZ will take care of this and return clean coats and towels to -2.002. (Contact: Doortje Heukeshoven)

Questions?

• Contact:

Helena Cockx (06 2009 5185 or h.cockx@donders.ru.nl) Jasper van der Heijdt (06 5743 6323 or J.vanderHeijdt@donders.ru.nl)