BioSafety

This is a collection of the resources that we have been using as guidance for making lab safety decisions. As far as a I know these are publicly available documents;

Genetic modification

The UK HSE say this about the "SACGM Compendium of guidance";

"Guidance from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Genetic Modification. If you follow this guidance you will normally be doing enough to comply with the law."
http://www.hse.gov.uk/biosafety/gmo/index.htm

and

"Following this guidance is not compulsory and you are free to take other action. But if you do follow this guidance you will normally be doing enough to comply with the law. Health and safety inspectors seek to secure compliance with the law and may refer to this guidance as illustrating good practice."
http://www.hse.gov.uk/biosafety/gmo/acgm/acgmcomp/part1.pdf

Hazardous chemicals and substances

Control of substances hazardous to health

File:L5.pdf

(Fifth edition) The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (as amended) Approved Code of Practice and guidance

Terminology

REACH - (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of Chemicals) is the system for controllingchemicals in Europe. It became law in the UK on the 1st June 2007. http://www.hse.gov.uk/reach/resources/reachsds.pdf

Other countries

CDC - Biosafety in microbiological labs

http://www.cdc.gov/biosafety/publications/bmbl5/bmbl.pdf

"Over the past two decades, Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL) has become the code of practice for biosafety—the discipline addressing the safe handling and containment of infectious microorganisms and hazardous biological materials. T"

"We wish to emphasize that the 5th edition of the BMBL remains an advisory document recommending best practices for the safe conduct of work in biomedical and clinical laboratories from a biosafety perspective, and is not intended as a regulatory document though we recognize that it will be used that way by some."

WHO - Laboratory biosafety manual

File:Biosafety7.pdf

which introduces a bunch of concepts which come up in more recent guidelines and regulations;

Throughout this manual, references are made to the relative hazards of infective microorganisms by risk group (WHO Risk Groups 1, 2, 3 and 4). This risk group classification is to be used for laboratory work only. Table 1 describes the risk groups. Table 1. Classification of infective microorganisms by risk group

• Risk Group 1 (no or low individual and community risk)

A microorganism that is unlikely to cause human or animal disease.

• Risk Group 2 (moderate individual risk, low community risk)

A pathogen that can cause human or animal disease but is unlikely to be a serious hazard to laboratory workers, the community, livestock or the environment. Laboratory exposures may cause serious infection, but effective treatment and preventive measures are available and the risk of spread of infection is limited.

• Risk Group 3 (high individual risk, low community risk)

A pathogen that usually causes serious human or animal disease but does not ordinarily spread from one infected individual to another. Effective treatment and preventive measures are available.

• Risk Group 4 (high individual and community risk)

A pathogen that usually causes serious human or animal disease and that can be readily transmitted from one individual to another, directly or indirectly. Effective treatment and preventive measures are not usually available.

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