Share thisWho would have thought 30 years ago that the retro-virus responsible for AIDS would have such a devastating worldwide socioeconomic impact, affecting all walks of life and straining country medical systems? Speculation is that this adaptive and deadly virus may have been manmade, an experiment gone wrong. Will we ever know for sure? Ask yourself about Legionnaire’s Disease, SARS, the new Super E-coli drug resistant strain, BSE (Mad Cow Disease), and what about the effects of the ancient nano-bacteria? The avian flu, responsible for the deaths of millions of birds in China, is now fatal to people. Will this trans-species, mutated viral pathogen become the Black Plague of the 21st Century? The World Health Organization is predicting a flu-like pandemic soon. Is this the one? Are we ready for it? Laboratories seeking solutions to eradicate these pathogens are strengthening laboratory bio-containment to protect the staff and their facilities. The question is; are the waste streams being discharged into the public domain free of pathogens and is the public being adequately protected?
National regulators, responsible for human and animal safety, have imposed enhanced precautionary waste discharge procedures at specified levels of animal research, agricultural research, and at all levels of genetic research in government, hospital, animal, pharmaceutical, and private laboratories. Given the extent to which new biological ccurrences are increasing in number, all facilities disposing potentially infectious solid and liquid waste streams should have zero-tolerance, mandatory protocols for wastes discharged.
These measures will ensure that known or unknown agents will not enter the public domain by any entry point. Currently, the strictest measures are imposed on BSL-3 and BSL-4 facilities. What about unknown agents being developed? Regulators that prescribe the level for waste sterilization required have been slow to react to change in accordance with these new hidden biological threats. It, therefore, makes sense that all laboratories and corporations, and not the regulators, proactively seek solutions beyond the baseline regulatory requirements. They should ensure that all infectious solid and liquid waste effluents are completely sterilized at the source as a preventative measure. Biological contaminants should not enter the environment in any viable form in order to ensure public safety. This must apply to all discharges from biological and animal laboratories, public and private, regardless of their certification level. WHY? We are an out of sight out of mind society.