• Question: Does your work harm the environment or any animals in any way?

    Asked by sunshine1 to Bob, Katie, Nisha, Sallie, Vee on 27 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by leyden13, mathumetha41.
    • Photo: Sallie Baxendale

      Sallie Baxendale answered on 27 Jun 2012:

      Not directly, but almost every aspect of medicine has been tested in animals before its tried in people, to make sure its safe. If you have ever taken a pain killer or cough medicine or had an operation, the drugs you have taken will have been tested on animals. There are now very strict rules about the welfare of animals used in medical research to ensure that they are properly looked after.

    • Photo: Vee Mitchell

      Vee Mitchell answered on 27 Jun 2012:

      The work I do directly doesn’t harm either. We control very tightly what we can throw down the sink or into the waste bin. Animals are used further along the process of developing a new medicine so a handful of the new chemicals that are successful in the experiments I run would go on to be tested for safety using animals. As Sallie says there are very strict rules about how and why this is done. You can find out more about this on the web site for an organisation called Understanding Animal Research.

    • Photo: Bob Bonwick

      Bob Bonwick answered on 27 Jun 2012:

      Not as far as I’m aware, we take a huge amount of care to recycle or dispose of out waste in a way that has little or no impact on the environment.

Comments