Overview
This presentation should allow participants to:
- Understand the basic concepts of biosafety and how they apply to research at UNL;
- Understand the different organism risk groups and laboratory biosafety levels;
- Understand the biosafety checklist items on the Lab SCS list for a BSL-1 and BSL-2 laboratories at UNL.
Biosafety principles and practices come from many sources. These include both regulatory documents and guidance documents and books. The regulatory basis for biosafety involving recombinant and synthetic nucleic acids or genetic engineering experiments comes primarily from the NIH Guidelines. The OSHA Hazcom standard applies to biological laboratories as well, but because of the hazardous chemicals used, not the biological hazards present.
The most widely accepted guidance comes from the BMBL, which is jointly published and edited by the CDC and NIH. This book is not regulatory, but represents best practices and the accepted standards of biosafety in the U.S. The book “Biosafety- Principles and Practices” is also a key resource for biosafety professionals. The BMBL and NIH Guidelines are available online. EHS has a copy of the Principles and Practices book as well.
The UNL Biosafety Guidelines as well as the numerous EHS SOPs are based on these industry standards.