Biosafety addresses the safe handling and containment of infectious microorganisms and hazardous biological materials. The Primary Investigator and/or Professor will identify and characterize biological hazards that you will be working with during lab. Exposures for all substances should be minimized.
Knowledge, preparation, and review of various safety topics before performing experiments or operating equipment for the first time will also reduce risks and help you identify and characterize hazards. Please take time to become aware of the safety information on this webpage.
Twelve Valuable Rules of Biosafety - Quick access link ...
Please view the six BioNetwork lab safety videos below.
The first consideration is proper dress. What you wear in the lab can help prevent serious, even fatal injuries. You'll also need PPE - Personal Protective Equipment. For general lab work, a lab coat, safety glasses or goggles, and gloves are required.
In this lesson, we'll talk about safety equipment found in the lab.
• Safety shower and eye wash station
• Fire extinguisher
• Fire blanket
• First aid kit
• Evacuation route
• Chemical fume hood
These items may help you save a life - if and when - an accident occurs.
Your behavior goes a long way to insuring that the lab is a safe environment for everyone.
• Follow SOPs
• Never eat, drink, chew gum, or apply makeup
• Never work alone
• Practice good housekeeping
• Clean spills
• Properly dispose of broken glass
• Report unsafe conditions immediately
In this lesson, we'll learn about the 2 most important tools to identify chemical hazards: • Safety Data Sheets (SDS) and • Chemical Labels
Many of the chemicals we use in the lab are potentially dangerous, especially under high heat, pressure, or when they're mixed with other chemicals.
It's vital that you prepare for each lab activity by determining the possible risks, donning the right PPE, and be aware of any protective measures and emergency responses that are pertinent for the chemicals that you'll be working with.
• Eye protection
• Transporting chemicals
• Lab aprons and arm-length rubber gloves
• Inhalation exposure
• Chemical spill response
• Flammables
• Chemical disposal
In our final video lesson, we'll cover a few other general lab hazards including: Electrical shock, Burns, Slips, Trips, and Falls, & Compressed gas cylinders.
The Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories 6th Edition (BMBL) 604 pages.
The fundamentals of containment include microbiological practices, safety equipment, and facility safeguards that protect laboratory workers, the environment, and the public from exposure to infectious microorganisms that are handled and stored in the laboratory.
Risk assessment is the process that enables the appropriate selection of microbiological practices, safety equipment, and the facility safeguards that can prevent laboratory-associated infections (LAI).
The purpose of periodic updates of Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories is to refine guidance based on new knowledge and experiences and to address contemporary issues that present new risks that confront laboratory workers and the public health. In this way the code of practice will continue to serve the microbiological and biomedical community as a relevant and valuable authoritative reference.
Application of this knowledge and the use of appropriate techniques and equipment will enable the microbiological and biomedical community to prevent personal, laboratory and environmental exposure to potentially infectious agents or biohazards. Individual workers who handle pathogenic microorganisms must understand the containment conditions under which infectious agents can be safely manipulated and secured.
Quick links...
Principles of Biosafety Factsheet ( 1 page)
Principles of Good Microbiological Practice (1 page)
Molecular Biology Tools (2 pages)
The primary risk criteria used to define the four ascending levels of containment, referred to as biosafety levels 1 through 4, are infectivity, severity of disease, transmissibility, and the nature of the work being conducted. View summary pdf. file.
Biosafety level 1 (BSL-1) is the basic level of protection and is appropriate for agents that are not known to cause disease in normal, healthy humans.
Biosafety level 2 (BSL-2) is appropriate for handling moderate-risk agents that cause human disease of varying severity by ingestion or through percutaneous or mucous membrane exposure.
AGENTS REQUIRING THE FOLLOWING BIOSAFETY LEVELS 3 AND 4 ARE NOT PERMITTED AT ST. NORBERT COLLEGE.
Biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) is appropriate for agents with a known potential for aerosol transmission, for agents that may cause serious and potential lethal infections and that are indigenous or exotic in origin.
Biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) is appropriate for Exotic agents that pose a high individual risk of life-threatening disease by infectious aerosols and for which no treatment is available. These agents are restricted to high containment laboratories that meet (BSL-4) standards.
Hierarchy of Controls
Elimination – Remove the chemical substance at the source. This could include changing the work process to stop using the chemical substance.
Substitution – Use a safer alternative. When considering a substitute, compare the potential risks of the substitute to those of the chemical substance being replaced. This review should consider how the substitute will combine with other agents in the workplace. Effective substitutes reduce the potential for harmful effects and do not create new risks.
Engineering controls - Engineering controls can include modifying equipment or the workspace, using local exhaust ventilation, protective barriers, and more to remove or prevent exposure to a chemical substance.
Effective engineering controls:
• Remove or block the chemical substance at the source before it comes into contact with the potentially exposed person;
• Prevent users from modifying, tampering, or otherwise interfering with the engineering control itself;
• Need minimal user input; and
• Operate correctly without interfering with the work process or making it more difficult.
Administrative controls/Work practices – Establish work practices that reduce the duration, frequency, or intensity of exposure to hazards (e.g., a chemical substance). This may include work process training, ensuring adequate rest breaks, or limiting access to areas where exposure(s) may be possible. Establishment of a regulated area may be an administrative control.
PPE – PPE is equipment worn to reduce or minimize exposure to hazards. Examples of PPE include gloves, safety glasses, and respirators. PPE use should be accompanied by a PPE/respirator program, which includes such elements as PPE/respirator selection and use
training, PPE/respirator inspection and replacement schedules, and effectiveness monitoring. Owners or operators should generally not rely on PPE as a primary method to control hazards when other effective control options are feasible.
Examples of controls.
Engineering Controls
Fume hoods, flammable cabinets, biosafety cabinets; physical barriers.
Administrative Controls
Safety awareness training, limited access, regulated areas, warning labels and signs.
Personal Protective Equipment
Safety glasses w/side shields, splash goggles, face shields, aprons, Nitrile gloves, specialty gloves for hot or cold materials.
