Biocontainment laboratory risk assessment: perspectives and considerations
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Diane Wax; Michael G. Kurilla; Nancy Boyd; Ryan Bayha; Kelly Fennington; Amy P. Patterson; Rona Hirschberg
- Source
- Pathogens and Disease. 71:102-108
- Subject
- Microbiology (medical)
medicine.medical_specialty
General Immunology and Microbiology
Process (engineering)
business.industry
Public health
Civil Defense
General Medicine
Containment of Biohazards
Biocontainment
Communicable Diseases, Emerging
Risk Assessment
Pathogenic organism
Infectious Diseases
Containment
Risk analysis (engineering)
Environmental health
medicine
Humans
Immunology and Allergy
Health Services Research
Laboratories
Risk assessment
business
Occupational Health
- Language
- ISSN
- 2049-632X
The ability to respond to public health emergencies involving infectious diseases as well as our ability to adequately prepare for as yet unknown or unrecognized emerging infectious diseases requires suitable facilities within which scientific investigations can take place. To ensure the safe conduct of such investigations so that laboratory workers and the general public are protected from potential consequences of accidental or intentional release of high consequence pathogens, special containment facilities have been designed and constructed. Evaluation of the adequacy of containment for these types of investigations requires a risk assessment (RA) as part of the overall construction project for these types of laboratories. A discussion of the RA process along with considerations that impact the design of such studies and the overall results is presented.