News

The following article may go back a few years, but is still relevant as it looks at concentration, size distribution and infectivity of airbourne particles, in particular those carrying swine viruses.

Article

The Global Laboratory Initiative (GLI) is pleased to announce the launch of the TB laboratory safety handbook. This tool was launched on the margins of the 50^th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Hyderabad earlier this week. This Handbook draws on decades of experience working in culture and DST laboratories. It focuses on how to work safely in order to reduce the risk of infection or injury and protect the laboratory workforce and the wider community against unintentional exposures or releases of pathogenic biological agents.

Factors that have led to potential and confirmed exposures to biological agents include absence or improper use of personal protective equipment, inadequate or ignored risk assessments, lack of standard operating procedures, and/or insufficiently trained personnel. 

The intended audience of this Handbook is laboratory staff who conduct procedures to test samples potentially containing Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

The handbook may be downloaded here.

The SwissErgo annual conference will take place on November 29th 2019 on the topic of flexibility at work and its relationships with employees' health and performance.

The program is available now.

Interested persons can register via https://swissergo.ch

Through the Science for Peace and Security Programme, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) convened an Advanced Research Workshop to explore the core questions of biosecurity for synthetic biology. The workshop was co-organised by EPFL (International Risk Governance Center)
and the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, and hosted by EPFL.

The meeting report may be downloaded here.

An explosion has caused a fire at a Russian biological research facility that's one of only 2 centers in the world known for housing samples of the smallpox virus.

More details may be found here.

The Public Health Agency of Canada’s Centre for Biosecurity is mandated to prevent, detect and respond to public health risks posed by the use of human pathogens and toxins in Canada. The Centre for Biosecurity oversees activities conducted under the Human Pathogens and Toxins Act (HPTA) and the Human Pathogens and Toxins Regulations (HPTR). In December 2015, the Centre for Biosecurity established a national surveillance system, the Laboratory Incident Notification Canada (LINC), for the mandatory reporting of laboratory incidents involving human pathogens and toxins. 

The most recent data has just been published by the Canadian authorities and may be downloaded here.

SBNet has officially gained affiliation with the International Federation of Biosafety Associations (IFBA). Please see the attached press release for more information.

We would like to express our gratitude and appreciation to each and everyone who participated in the 13th Applied Biosafety Meeting in Bern on August 22nd and 23rd 2019, be that as participant, speaker, exhibitor or sponsor. Preliminary feedback from a number of people indicates that the meeting was a roaring success. Thank you. All this would not be possible without your continued support!!!

All presentations will be made available in the members' section once we have received permission from presenters.

Additionally, members may find the minutes of the 9th AGM in the members' section of our website.

The Swiss Society for Occupational Safety invites you to register for their meeting on August 29th 2019 in Zurich. More infos may be found here.

SwissErgo holds its exchange of experiences on November 29th 2019. More information may be found in the attached documents (French, German).