In 1981 and 1983, the National Research Council published two reports on chemical safety in the laboratory: Prudent Practices for Handling Hazardous Chemicals in Laboratories and Prudent Practices for Disposal of Chemicals from Laboratories[⁹³ ][⁹⁴ ]. In November 1983, a planning committee of the National Research Council was convened under the chairmanship of Thomas Weller to consider the need for a document that would deal in a similar way with biological safety in the laboratory. The committee concluded that such a document would be timely and recommended the formation of a working committee to produce it.

The Committee on Hazardous Biological Substances in the Laboratory was organized in the fall of 1985. It was presented with a broad charge, namely, to prepare a report dealing with the following aspects of hazardous biological materials:

1.

Definition of laboratory safety problems with hazardous biological materials.

2.

Guidelines for physical facilities, equipment, and work practices.

3.

Procedures for identifying hazards and establishing conditions for any operation involving hazardous biological materials.

4.

Guidelines for waste disposal, including incinerating, venting, and discharging to sewer systems.

5.

Guidelines for all aspects of an effective safety program including medical surveillance, compliance with regulations, and recordkeeping.

6.

A plan for obtaining consensus on and implementation of the guidelines.

The committee first met in January 1986 and decided to restrict the scope of the report to the safe handling and disposal of agents hazardous to humans; strict animal pathogens and strict plant pathogens were considered to be of interest to different, specialized audiences, and better dealt with in other publications. It was also decided to deal only briefly with such hazardous biological products as toxins and immunoactive substances.

During the period in which this report was being planned and written, a number of excellent books appeared dealing with various aspects of biosafety in the laboratory (see, for example, references 4, 83, and 149). Although the present report overlaps many sections of these books, the committee felt that the need still existed for a consensus, peer-reviewed document, produced under the imprimatur of the NRC, that could serve as a general set of guidelines for the safe handling and disposal of infectious materials in the laboratory. This book represents the committee's efforts to produce such a document, with the able support of the National Research Council's staff: in particular, we wish to thank William Spindel, Robert M. Simon, and Bennett L. Elisberg for their expert assistance. We also wish to acknowledge the contributions of the 30 or more reviewers, representing every type of microbiological laboratory, whose thoughtful and constructive comments formed the basis of many changes in the final draft of this book.

EDWARD A. ADELBERG, Chairman

Committee on Hazardous Biological Substances in the Laboratory