ANSI/ASSE Z9.14 “Testing and Performance Verification Methodologies for Ventilation Systems for Biological Safety Level 3 (BSL-3) and Animal Biological Safety Level 3 (ABSL-3) Laboratories” Leads Standard Development for High-Containment Laboratory Performance
Free accessEditorialFirst published online June, 2013
ANSI/ASSE Z9.14 “Testing and Performance Verification Methodologies for Ventilation Systems for Biological Safety Level 3 (BSL-3) and Animal Biological Safety Level 3 (ABSL-3) Laboratories” Leads Standard Development for High-Containment Laboratory Performance
A February 2013 Government Accounting Office (GAO) letter to Congress, titled “High-Containment Laboratories: Assessment of the Nation's Need Is Missing,” (GAO, 2013) reiterates the concern in the 2009 GAO report (GAO, 2009) that there is still a need to “develop, in consultation with the scientific community, national standards for the design, construction, commissioning, and operation of high-containment laboratories, specifically including provisions for long-term maintenance.” With more high-containment laboratories coming online, the level of overall risk when laboratory accidents occur is unknown (GAO, 2013).
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, & National Institutes of Health. (2009). In ChosewoodL. C., WilsonD. E. (Eds.), Biosafety in microbiological and biomedical laboratories (5th ed.). Available at: www.cdc.gov/biosafety/publications/bmbl5. Accessed online 2013.
3.
U.S. Government Accounting Office. (GAO). (February 25, 2013). Letter to Congressional Requesters. High-Containment Laboratories: Assessment of the Nation's Need Is Missing. Available at: www.gao.gov/assets/660/653289.txt. Accessed online 2013.
4.
U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO). (September 21, 2009). High-Containment Laboratories: National Strategy for Oversight Is Needed. GAO-09-574. Washington, DC: GAO. Available at: www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-574. Accessed online 2013.
