Good Afternoon, Here is a question for the list serve -

More and more laboratories are using cancer cells. The body of evidence states that you can not get cancer from touching or even eating a HeLa cell or some other cancerous cell from another species, but I am not sure that I can just swallow that without any reasoning. Anyone have an opinion or reasoning regarding contracting cancer from a cancer cell culture?

A cancerous cell has been changed by some virus that is no longer present and the cancer cell is not able to re assemble the virus or affect the genome of another cell.

Does anyone have any references for working with cancer cells? Does working with these cells require anything more than BLS-1 or BSL-2? Must these be deactivated before discarding?

If anyone has any thoughts or resources regarding working with HeLa or other human and animal cancer cell lines above and beyond what you would do with normal healthy cells, I am listening. Some staff seems to be trivializing this and I am not sure that I agree, I am looking for some reinforcement (on their opinion or mine) and any references or resources in regards to working with cancer cell lines in the lab.

Thanks,

James Saccardo, MS, CHMM

The College of Staten Island

Office of Environmental Health and Safety

(718)-982-3906

james.saccardo**At_Symbol_Here**csi.cuny.edu

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Benjamin Franklin

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