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Health and Safety Requirements
Introduction
A Culture Collection should assess the hazards and risks that staff may be exposed to during
their work and assign specific responsibilities to individuals to ensure a safe working
environment. The Culture Collection management holds the responsibility for the safety of all
staff, visitors and hired contractors on the collection site. Staff managers are responsible for
the health and safety of the staff they supervise and are required to assess the risk each
individual is exposed to in carrying out the tasks assigned. They must also ensure that
adequate facilities are available to carry out this work safely.
Information transfer to staff on hazards and risks should be provided via safety booklets,
appropriate training, safety data sheets, codes of practice and risk assessments on all
procedures and duties. Document issue records, risk assessment and training records should
be kept for all members of staff and lodged in personnel files. Mechanisms should be in place
to ensure that management and staff kept aware of new legislation.
Work place and workstations should be inspected regularly.
Emergency procedures for major accidents or incidents must be in place. These include fire
evacuation procedures, contact procedures for first aiders, emergency procedures for out of
hours working, emergency action with liquid nitrogen and chemical spillage.
Health and Safety Records
There are several health and safety records that are required by law and others that should be
kept to facilitate health and safety management. The main records are:
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Accident book
Chemicals in use
Fire drill reports
Inspection reports
Maintenance records
Minutes of First Aiders meetings
Minutes of safety meetings
Personal health records
Personal risk assessments
Procedural risk assessments
Safety data sheets
Staff training records
Contacts for Emergency Use
A Culture Collection should provide information to staff for contacts in case of an emergency
such as internal first aid (list of First Aiders) and external provisions, e.g. medical doctor,
hospital, other medical aid, emergency services. Additionally, information on building service
utilities for cut off in an emergency should be provided, e.g. location of main electricity
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switches, location of water stop-valves, location of gas stop-valves. An employer should
provide First aid boxes for emergency use.
Specific Hazards
A Culture Collection must have documented procedures for all its activities. An alphabetical
list (not exhaustive) of areas to be covered related to biohazards, chemical and technical
hazards is given below:
Accident reports
Allergic reactions
Autoclaves
Biological hazards
Carcinogens
Centrifuges
Chemicals
Sterile work cabinets
Cleaner’s safety guidelines
Disinfectants
Disposal of contaminated materials and wastes
Electrical safety
Fire
Glass
Hand tools
Hazard groups and containment levels
Infection
Laboratory practice
Laboratory coats and other personal protective equipment (PPE)
Ladders
Lifting and carrying
Liquid nitrogen
Microbial toxins
Office safety
Opening cultures and ampoules
Opening parcels
Personal protective equipment (PPE)
Security
Solvents
Sterilisation
Tidiness
Transport of cultures within buildings
Visitor’s safety guidelines
Visual Display Units (VDU's)
Workplace maintenance and repair
Risk Assessment
A Culture Collection should carry out risk assessments on all its activities. The categories of
risk assessment should include:
The management is responsible for the health and safety of staff whilst they are carrying out
tasks on their behalf. Therefore it must ensure that a suitable and adequate risk assessment of
the set task has been carried out and that the staff member has been made aware of the
hazards and risks involved and that they have the relevant information and skills to carry it
out. A risk assessment must identify the hazards, the potential to cause harm, the degree of
harm (consequences of exposure) and the likelihood of exposure. There must be
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recommendations for safe procedures and actions needed for improving safety where
necessary.
Hazards: National regulations governing the control of hazardous substances may require the
containment of such substances or the reduction of possible exposure to as far below
maximum exposure limits or occupational exposure standards as is reasonably practicable.
More toxic materials should be replaced with less toxic ones where possible. Safety data
sheets must be obtained and risk assessments carried out before chemicals are brought onto
site. The risk assessment should include procedures for adequate handling, storage, use and
disposal of the hazardous material.
Personal health: An individual member of staff may have a wide range of duties involving
several hazardous materials. It is extremely important that all their tasks are considered taking
into account any synergistic effects. A personal risk assessment form is completed as a written
record on the safety aspects of the reportee's tasks. This is reviewed whenever there are major
changes to the duties performed and during staff appraisal procedures. A list of all hazardous
substances that could have cumulative effects that the reportee may be exposed to must be
kept and updated. An assessment of the amount and frequency of exposure must be made and
recorded.
Manual handling: A manual handling risk assessment form must be completed for every
member of staff.
VDU operation: A VDU (Visual Display Unit) workstation assessment must be carried out
for all staff who are categorised as VDU users (those who operate a VDU in excess of a
defined exposure time, usually one or two hours per day). A trained VDU assessor should
carry out this assessment.
Workplace: An annual safety inspection by experts outside the Culture Collection is
advisable but the day to day assessment of workplace suitability and repair is an internal
responsibility. The workplace and individual workstation must be suited to the tasks being
carried out and must not place the operator at risk to their health and safety.
Equipment: All work equipment must be safe and suitable for the task for which it is being
used. Equipment must be inspected regularly and any faults or concerns addressed
immediately or before the equipment is next used.
Relevant Treaties, Directives and Legislation
Treaty/Directive/legislation
Requirement
Risk Assessment
Control of access
and distribution
Convention on Biological Diversity
PIC; MTA
European Commission Decision 91/448/EEC of Risk assessment;
29 July 1991 concerning the guidelines for
Adequate health and
classification referred to in Article 4 of Directive safety practices
90/219/EEC
National Heaith and Safety Legislation
Risk assessment;
Adequate health and
Existing BRC
protocols
Cartagena Protocol to the Convention on
Biological Diversity
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MOSAICC
OECD
Mandatory
Guidance for
BRCs
OECD
Mandatory
safety practices
European Council Directive 89/391/EEC:
Council Directive of 12 June 1989 on the
introduction of measures to encourage
improvements in the safety and health of
workers at work
European Council Directive 90/219/EEC of 23
April 1990 on the contained use of genetically
modified micro-organisms
European Council Directive 90/220/EEC of 23
April 1990 on the deliberate release into the
environment of genetically modified organisms
European Council Directive 90/679/EEC on the
protection of workers from risks related to
exposure to biological agents at work (7th
individual Directive within the meaning of
Article 16 (1) [1997] European Parliament
(2000) Directive 2000/54/EC on the protection
of workers from risks related to exposure to
biological agents at work. OJ No. L262, pp. 2145 of 18.09.2000
Risk assessment;
Adequate health and
safety practices
Guidance for
BRCs
OECD BRC
Mandatory
Guidance
Risk assessment;
Adequate health and
safety practices
Risk assessment;
Adequate health and
safety practices
Risk assessment;
Adequate health and
safety practices
OECD BRC
Mandatory
Guidance
USEFUL SAFETY REFERENCES
Anon (1995) Categorisation of pathogens according to hazard and categories of containment.
Fourth edition. Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP). London:
HMSO.
Anon (1996a). COSHH (General ACOP), Control of Carcinogenic substances, Biological
Agents: Approved Codes of Practice (1996). London: HSE.
Anon (1997a). Safe Biotechnology, Classification of Biological Agents, Bacteria.
Berufsgenossenschaft der chemischen Industrie. Merkblatt B 006e, 2/97, ZH 1/346.
69021 Heidelberg: Jedermann-Verlag.
Anon (1997b). Safe Biotechnology, Classification of Biological Agents, Fungi.
Berufsgenossenschaft der chemischen Industrie. Merkblatt B 007e, 2/97, ZH 1/346.
69021 Heidelberg: Jedermann-Verlag.
Collier, L., Balows, A. & Sussman, M. (eds) (1998). Topley and Wilson’s Microbiology and
Microbial Infections. 9th edition. London: Arnold.
Collins C H (1990). A review. COSHH and the microbiologist. Letters in Applied
Microbiology 10, 109-112.
Collins C H; Hartley E G; Pilworth R (1974). The prevention of laboratory acquired
infection. PHLS Mongraph Series 6. London: HMSO.
de Hoog, G.S. (1996) Risk assessment of fungi reported from humans and animals. Mycoses
39, 407-417.
Smith, D. (ed.) (1996). Committee on postal, quarantine and safety regulations report 1996,
Postal, quarantine and safety regulations: status and concerns. Braunschweig,
Germany: World Federation for Culture Collections. pp39.
Smith, J.E. & Moss, M.O. (1985). Mycotoxins: Formation, analysis and significance.
Chichester, New York: John Wiley.
Smith, D., Rohde, C. & Holmes, B. (1999). Handling and distribution of microorganisms and
the law. Microbiology Today 26, 14-16
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Stricoff, R.S. & Walters, D.B. (1995) Handbook of Laboratory Health and Safety, second
edition. pp 462. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
World Health Organization (1993) Laboratory Biosafety Manual, 2nd ed. (revised; interim
guidelines). World Health Organization, Geneva, ISBN 92- 4-154450-3
Web sites
ICGEB - http://www.icgeb.trieste.it - biosafety - http://www.icgeb.trieste.it/~bsafesrv/
AHIS - http://www.aphis.org
CFSAN - http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/chap24.html
Belgian Biosafety Server http://biosafety.ihe.be
UK site on safety http://hazmat.dot.gov/
Safety Standards the UK ACDP can be found at http://www.hse.gov.uk/foi/openacdp.htm
http://www.oecd.org/oecd/pages/home/displaygeneral/0,3380,EN-home-0-nodirectorate-nono-no-0,FF.html
WHO - http://www.who.int/homepage - The Biosafety Manual is found at
http://www.who.int/emc/biosafety.html
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