Based upon these various pieces of information, preventative
measures (containment) have been developed that provide some
protection to at risk workers.
These measures have been summarized by the National Institutes
of Health in conjunction with the Center for Diseases Control
and Prevention. Their guidelines and recommendations represents
the integration of personnel procedures and practices with laboratory
design and engineering features to minimize the exposure of
workers to hazardous or potentially hazardous agents or substances.
By using increasingly stringent procedures and better designed
facilities, work can be conducted with a higher degree of safety
on agents of correspondingly increasing hazard or risk potential.
The objective of incorporating containment measures into the
design of a research program serves to minimize the potential
for exposure of investigative and support personnel. In addition,
the escape of experimental materials from the laboratory that
may pose a health hazard to the surrounding community or cause
some ecological effect, can be controlled.
The introduction of these procedures and practices were sufficiently
successful, that OSHA based its OSHA Blood Borne Pathogen Rule
on them, in part,
