| About This Archive | | DCHAS-L 2019 Index | | DCHAS-L Yearly Index | |
Check out Safety Emporium for your N95, N99, and face shield needs.
|
Previous by Date: Subject: [DCHAS-L] Chemical Safety headlines (18 articles) Date: Wednesday, July 10, 2019 at 7:23:59 AM Author: DCHAS Membership Chair <membership**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG> |
Next by Date: Subject: [DCHAS-L] AAALAC accreditation Date: Wed, 10 Jul 2019 21:26:55 +0000 Author: "Battles, Paul" |
I find this note from another lab safety internet forum I follow very interesting. One of the challenges I have found over the years of serving multi-disciplinary laboratory workers is the technical differences between biosafety and chemical safety logics.
One of the most prominent of these differences was the assignment of risk level based on the name of the hazardous agent in the biosafety world. It sounds like the biosafety community is moving in the direction of assessing the risks of individual laboratory procedures rather than making blanket statements based on the agent involved, as chemical safety professionals have been emphiasizing for the last 10 to 15 years. It's interesting to note that 3rd Edition of the WHO guidelines was published in 2004, so this development has arisen in both communities in similar time frames.
Perhaps this changes will lead to an increasingly collaborative safety training of lab scientists who work with both chemical and biological agents.
- Ralph
Re: WHO - Biosafety Levels Gone
From: Richard Gilpin
Draft WHO Laboratory Biosafety Manual Fourth Edition Removes "Biosafety Levels"
WHO Biosafety Manual Forward: "Previous versions of the manual described the classification of biological agents and laboratories in terms of risk/hazard groups and biosafety/containment levels. While this may be a logical starting point for the handling and containment of biological agents, it has led to the misconception that the risk group of a biological agent directly corresponds to the biosafety level of a laboratory. In fact, the actual risk of a given scenario is influenced not only by the agent being handled, but also by the procedure being performed and the competency of the laboratory personnel engaging in the activity."
"This is a positive, significant change that will restore the scientific method to risk analysis" - Dr Richard Gilpin. Biosafety levels began in 1984 with BMBL 1st Edition. Canada removed biosafety levels a few years ago.
The NIH Design Requirements Manual and Desk Guide revised April 2019 are the current BSL facility design and construction references - not the BMBL
------------------------------
Dr Richard W Gilpin RBP CBSP SM(NRCM)
Johns Hopkins Medicine
Baltimore MD
------------------------------
Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
Environmental Safety Manager
Keene State College
603 358-2859
ralph.stuart**At_Symbol_Here**keene.edu
---
For more information about the DCHAS-L e-mail list, contact the Divisional membership chair at membership**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Follow us on Twitter **At_Symbol_Here**acsdchas
Previous post | Top of Page | Next post