Biosafety and Biosecurity
Threats from biological agents
Working with harmful microorganisms requires extensive biosafety measures
A different type of seminar titled "Biosafety and Biosecurity: What do we know, what do we need, and what can we do?" was held at ICDDR,B's Sasakawa Auditorium on August 22, 2011. The main purpose of the seminar was to launch a national professional organization on national biosafety and biosecurity issues. The professional organization would, in the near future, help the government promulgate laws and create institutions with regulatory authorities. Our part of the globe is generally familiar with regulatory organizations created and imposed by the government. This exceptional seminar reflected the development of a sensible private sector and a group of non-government organizations in the country. Biosafety and biosecurity had gained significance since the advent of the biotechnology era some fifty years ago. Biosafety defines the containment conditions under which infectious agents can be safely manipulated. The objective of containment is to confine biohazards and to reduce the potential exposure of the laboratory worker, persons outside of the laboratory, and the environment to potentially infectious agents. Biological agents may accidentally escape to the environment and the agents can be manipulated and even weaponized by domestic and international terrorists. National biosafety regulations are thus necessary for international cooperation and trade. Biosecurity is a poorly defined concept within biosafety. The main goal of biosafety is to protect individual laboratory workers from exposure to the hazardous microorganisms. In contrast, the main goal of biosecurity, according to the Sunshine Project (a biodefense research organization) is to "protect dangerous biological materials from inadvertent or deliberate release to the community (humans, animals, plants) or environment." Thus scientist and technologists would be interested mainly in biosafety issues but, admirably, here the Bangladeshi professionals have also included biosecurity in the discussion. In fact, the professionals are volunteering in building the infrastructure of their young nation. Agriculture research had been strong in Bangladesh for a while now. Obviously the nation would like to protect its investment in agricultural research. If our business and industrial leaders had already not done so, they will in time import genetically modified (GM) organisms in this country and propagate the organisms here. There are many scores of diagnostic laboratories where hazardous microbes are handled and in some cases propagated in high concentrations. The national forensic laboratory also needs to dispose significant amount of leftover human tissues. Dr. Jesmin, Associate Professor at the Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology of the University of Dhaka indicated that there is no implementable local or national guideline at present for disposal of hazardous laboratory waste. Bangladesh is also the home of ICDDR,B; a highly reputed international biomedical research organization. All these concerns require our nation to have a sound set of laws and appropriate institutions that would enforce the laws.
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