Share thisHandling liquid waste in and from a BSL-3, BSL-3Ag, or BSL-4 biocontainment laboratory can present unique issues for the lab workers, the general public, and the environment. Infectious agents studied in these settings can cause serious illness, even death in people and/or animals and can present incalculable risks to the environment. We will present here, new technologies that are available to allow for safer handling and disposal of infectious liquids from biocontainment facilities.
Containment and Transmission
BSL barrier facilities are designed and constructed so that, along with the use of good laboratory practices and appropriate safety equipment, the harmful and potentially fatal agents may be contained safely during diagnostic procedures, clinical procedures, or research. An infectious route, an infectious dose, and/or a specific series of events must be present to enable these agents to infect a human or an animal, or to harm the environment.
- - The agent must be present in a suitable environment where it will remain alive and/or infectious.
- - The agent must have a method to travel from point “A” to point “B.”
- - The host must have vulnerability to the agent and a specific entry point must be available for the agent to invade the host.
- - The agent must be present in sufficient quantity (dose) to infect the host. Infection will not occur unless all of these factors are available for transmission to take place.
Special preventive measures must be taken to interrupt the course of infectious transfer. Secondary containment, in conjunction with personal protective equipment (PPE) adequate to create a protective barrier for the specific agents, is recommended in addition to good laboratory practices and techniques. Waste generated inside the barrier should be considered infectious and special processing must take place to prevent the transfer of the infectious agents to people outside of the barrier and to the environment.