The International Federation of Biosafety Associations is pleased to
announce a new collaboration with Nuaire Inc. to strengthen global laboratory
biosafety. Both organizations share similar goals of providing safe, practical
and sustainable solutions for biological safety cabinets in all areas of the
world. Also driving our organizations is not only the provision of high quality
equipment, but a commitment to the ongoing training and servicing to ensure
that biological safety cabinets are used properly and sustained over the long
term.
Risk assessment in human and animal health diagnostic laboratories is a
fundamental process to identify potential hazards and specify practices and
procedure that will minimize or eliminate exposure to those hazards. The use of
biological safety cabinets (BSCs) presents one avenue for mitigating hazards
associated with infectious biologicals and aerosols. Unfortunately, and far too
often, personnel are not adequately trained in the proper selection,
installation, use and ongoing maintenance of BSCs. Results of a recent survey
conducted by the Asia-Pacific Biosafety Association highlighted that many BSCs
were below an acceptable level of functionality (e.g. 30% of Class II
biological safety cabinets tested were poorly designed, installed incorrectly,
not certified, or being operated incorrectly).
The IFBA and Nuaire are working together to find simple, safe and
workable solutions to improve the situation in South East Asia, Africa and
other regions of the world. Towards this end, we are excited that Nuaire has
joined the IFBA's
Biocontainment Engineering Working Group (BEWG) to address a lack of trained and qualified biocontainment engineers who can
install and maintain BSCs in a cost-effective and practical manner that is applicable
to local conditions around the world (the BEWG is Co-Chaired by Canada and
Uganda).
Educating laboratory technicians, scientists and maintenance personnel
about BSCs as a primary means of containment for working safely with infectious
organisms is another key aspect of our new collaboration. For many years NuAire
has been developing and delivering training designed to provide our global
community with the knowledge, experience and confidence needed to understand
and effectively operate and maintain BSCs. We are pleased that Nuaire will soon
be releasing an updated version of their interactive learning guide "
Working Safely in Your Biological Safety
Cabinet" that will be available online at
www.nuaire.com.
For those who are not familiar with Nuaire, the company was established
early in the 1970s when it was awarded a contract to design and manufacture the
first modern day BSC to meet with the US NIH specification entitled "Laminar
Flow Biological Safety Cabinet". Since that time, Nuaire has grown
substantially and manufactures a wide range of BSCs and other complimenatry
laboratory products that are distributed worldwide. The company also develops
and distributes education tools and technical bulletins designed to assist in understanding
the different functions and safe operation of the BSC.
Providing
our global biosafety community with the appropriate equipment, tools and
knowledge they need to work in a safe environment is a key activity for the
IFBA and its membership.We recognize however that widespread and lasting results can only be
realized by harnessing the power of multiple stakeholders. No individual sector
- government, NGO, or business - can make a big a difference alone as we can
make by working together. Collaborating with Nuaire will enable us to
accomplish our greatest successes in the safe and sustainable use of biological
safety cabinets worldwide.
For further details please visit
www.internationalbiosafety.org and
www.nuaire.com or contact the IFBA secretariat
at
secretariat@internationalbiosafety.org.
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