October is National Biosafety Month

October is National Biosafety Month (NBM). The Office of Science Policy (OSP) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) encourages institutions to:

• Highlight the importance of biosafety.
• Undertake activities to strengthen their biosafety programs.

The 2017 theme for NBM is “promoting biosafety through good governance.”

What is Emory University doing? The biosafety office team:

• Encourages principal investigators and laboratory managers to review their standard operating procedures, submit them to the biosafety office for feedback, and share with research personnel.
• Continues to promote a culture of safety at all levels of oversight within our institution: laboratory personnel, principal investigators, and the Institutional Biosafety Committees (IBC).
• Continue to interact with other institutional committees such as IRB (human subjects) and IACUC (animal use), or IBC subcommittees such as the Chemical Safety Committee which has oversight of the use of chemicals in laboratory animals.
• Encourages all research personnel, including principal investigators, to review their EHSO training modules so that the training is updated accordingly, indirectly, up to date training expedites the review and approval of biological registrations. The three basic modules are:

1. Research Lab Safety Training- Course code 240150 -ANNUAL.
2. BBP training- Course code 240100 -ANNUAL  [if working with human source materials].
3. Biosafety training EHSO 240120- EVERY 3-YR.

• Encourages research groups to request hands-on refresher training focused on specific biological risks.
• Encourages principal investigators to review vaccination requirements and occupational health recommendations with research personnel.
• Encourages new investigators to initiate the electronic registration of their research spaces and use of biological agents.
• Encourages investigators to maintain biological registrations up to date including personnel and biological agents used. Expired registrations may be reported to the associated institutional committee.

What are we asking from you, the investigator?

• Discuss and follow standard operating procedures.
• Use appropriate PPE for the job activity to be conducted.
• Complete annual research safety training and BBP training (if applicable)
• Follow, and encourage others to follow, good microbiological practices.
• Report all laboratory incidents and near misses.

If you have any questions, please contact the biosafety office at biosafe@emory.edu. You can also follow EHSO’s Twitter account.

Let’s continue to work together to keep Emory safe, EHSO is here to help you!