The basic objective of a biosafety program is the containment of potentially harmful biological agents.
The purpose of containment is to reduce or eliminate exposure of laboratory workers, other persons, and the outside environment to potentially hazardous agents..
The BSO develops biological safety resources, educational material, fact sheets, and white papers for university, college, department and/or community research activities, performs laboratory inspections, develops/presents training in accordance with the requirements of WVU policy and federal and state regulations, and .
Develops, implements, and coordinates a comprehensive biological safety program for the University to enhance institutional biosafety-related objectives and to ensure compliance with all applicable regulations, guidelines, policies, and directives..
Biological Safety Officer (BSO)
The BSO is responsible for providing guidance on the safe handling of biological agents and contributing to the overall management of the Biosafety Program.
The BSO is a voting ex-officio member of the IBC..
Providing safety advice.
Ensuring staff compliance with safety policies and procedures by performing regular safety inspections, and documenting and submitting reports of such inspections to the Laboratory Manager for review and action.
Investigating laboratory accidents and documenting accident reports..
Dynamic day to day responsibilities include reviewing biological protocols describing research activities, analysis on the risk of procedures with microbes, toxins, and biological materials, providing recommendations, preparing the information for the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) review, responses to email .
Biosafety officer(s) 2.
Scientists 3.
Medical personnel 4.
Veterinarian(s) (if work with animals is conducted) 5.
Representatives of technical staff 6.
Representatives of laboratory management.
Biosafety officer Wherever possible a biosafety officer should be appointed to ensure that biosafety policies and programmes are followed consistently throughout the laboratory.
The biosafety officer executes these duties on behalf of the head of the institute or laboratory.
Safety:
In both instances, the biosafety officer should be informed.
Strong (e.g. thick rubber) gloves, covered if necessary with suitable disposable gloves, should be worn for all subsequent operations.
Forceps, or cotton held in the forceps, should be used to retrieve glass debris.
