• Question: Do you harm any animals in your work?

    Asked by to Daren, Lynne, Phillip, Simon on 17 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      We try our best not to! Some chemicals are harmful to fish if they’re poured down the sink so we make sure we put them in a separate waste container and don’t get into the rivers!

    • Photo: Daren Fearon

      Daren Fearon answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      I don’t work with any animals myself. However, any drug that we hope to use to treat people has to go through clinical trials which involves testing on animals. We’d prefer not to have to use animals but we need to make sure drugs are effective and safe before giving them to people.

    • Photo: Lynne Thomas

      Lynne Thomas answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      Definitely not directly. We are very careful with some chemicals and make sure that we get rid of them safely so that they don’t have a chance to get into the water system. I don’t think any scientists go out deliberately to harm animals and when medicines are tested on animals, as much as possible is done beforehand to minimise the risk to the animals. You never can tell though as it is quite different doing something in a very controlled way in a test tube compared to what happens when you put it into a complicated environment like in an animal or human.

    • Photo: Simon Redfern

      Simon Redfern answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      I work on rocks and minerals, so no animals are involved in my work and certainly none are harmed.

Comments