Personnel Control

CONTAINMENT PRACTICES AND PROCEDURES

LBNL requires each laboratory that is involved with or contemplates the use of hazardous or potentially hazardous biological materials to register with the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC).

As part of this effort, all Investigators are required to assess the risks associated with their research activities and report their findings as part of the registration process.

This assessment includes a review of the procedures and practices that are appropriate to manage research materials safely.

Personnel Practices

The PI should determine whether or not the use of a particular agent requires special entry provisions. 

When entry restrictions are necessary, a hazard warning sign incorporating the universal biohazard symbol should be posted on all access doors to the restricted area. 

This sign should identify the infectious agent(s) currently used, list name and telephone number of the responsible supervisor, and define specific requirements for entering the area.

As inadvertent ingestion is a realistic means of exposure to microorganisms, supervisors should prohibit eating, smoking, and drinking.

This prohibition should also be extended to the application of cosmetics in the laboratory.  Nail biting is strongly discouraged, as this is another means of exposure to hand contamination. 

Clearly, mouth pipetting is not to be permitted.  Mechanical pipetting devices are required.  These devices are more accurate than standard pipettes and eliminate aspiration/ingestion as a source of laboratory-acquired illness.

Hand washing provides another means of preventing ingestion of organisms and their spread to other surfaces.  Hands should be washed after working with infectious microorganisms or cleaning up a spill.