Laboratory Biosecurity Handbook

By achieving a delicate balance between systems and practices, proper laboratory biosecurity reduces the risk of legitimate bioscience facilities becoming sources of pathogens and toxins for malicious use. Effective design and implementation of laboratory biosecurity depends on cooperation among individuals from diverse communities, including scientists, technicians, policy makers, security engineers, and law enforcement officials. Providing guidance to the broad international community, Laboratory Biosecurity Handbook addresses the objectives of biosecurity and the ways in which they overlap or conflict with those of biosafety. The book describes the risks of working with dangerous pathogens and toxins in the current era of international terrorism. The authors characterize the global spread of legitimate biotechnology and relate it to the rise of transnational terrorism, emphasizing the need for biosecurity measures even in legitimate bioscience. The book discusses biosecurity risk assessment-a practical methodology that allows laboratory management and biosafety/biosecurity officers to analyze and determine the level of risk, and serves as a basis for managing those risks. The book includes questionnaires that can assist the process of collecting data for a biosecurity vulnerability assessment, example standard operating procedures and memoranda of understanding, and other useful reference material. Addressing a variety of operating environments and the particular challenges they face when designing and implementing laboratory biosecurity, this book can assist bioscience facilities ranging from the large to the small, from those that focus on diagnosis or vaccine development, to those only minimally involved with infectious diseases. The detailed recommendations help avoid a "one-size-fits-all" approach to security and save limited resources. The book shows institutions how to develop and implement a biosecurity plan, and helps ensure that all components are included in the overall system, whether existing or new.

This book describes the risks of working with dangerous pathogens and toxins in the current era of international terrorism. The authors characterize the global spread of legitimate biotechnology and relate it to the rise of transnational terrorism, emphasizing the need for biosecurity measures even in legitimate bioscience. This second edition is considerably longer than the first and includes several new chapters and sections, with the final two-thirds of the book entirely reorganized.

Over the past two decades bioscience facilities worldwide have experienced multiple safety and security incidents, including many notable incidents at so-called "sophisticated facilities" in North America and Western Europe. This demonstrates that a system based solely on biosafety levels and security regulations may not be sufficient. Setting the stage for a substantively different approach for managing the risks of working with biological agents in laboratories, Laboratory Biorisk Management: Biosafety and Biosecurity introduces the concept of biorisk management—a new paradigm that encompasses both laboratory biosafety and biosecurity. The book also provides laboratory managers and directors with the information and technical tools needed for its implementation. The basis for this new paradigm is a three-pronged, multi-disciplinary model of assessment, mitigation, and performance (the AMP model). The application of the methodologies, criteria, and guidance outlined in the book helps to reduce the risk of laboratories becoming the sources of infectious disease outbreaks. This is a valuable resource for those seeking to embrace and implement biorisk management systems in their facilities and operations, including the biological research, clinical diagnostic, and production/manufacturing communities.

This is the third edition of this manual which contains updated practical guidance on biosafety techniques in laboratories at all levels. It is organised into nine sections and issues covered include: microbiological risk assessment; lab design and facilities; biosecurity concepts; safety equipment; contingency planning; disinfection and sterilisation; the transport of infectious substances; biosafety and the safe use of recombinant DNA technology; chemical, fire and electrical safety aspects; safety organisation and training programmes; and the safety checklist.

The increasing risk of naturally occurring and intentionally introduced infectious disease makes the existing approaches to laboratory biosafety and biosecurity no longer adequate. Biorisk management emphasizes the need for a comprehensive, laboratory-specific method to simultaneously reduce both the safety and security risks associated with biological agents in a laboratory. This volume introduces this new field and explains how to implement it. The book sets the stage for a radically different understanding of how to reduce the risks of working with biological agents in laboratories, based on a new paradigm of assessment, mitigation, and performance (the AMP model).

The Handbook identifies all aspects of Regulatory Plant Biosecurity and discusses them from the standpoint of preventing the international movement of plant pests, diseases and weeds that negatively impact production agriculture, natural plant-resources and agricultural commerce.