Biological Safety
NEWS/HIGHLIGHTS
National Biosafety Stewardship Month & Safety Stand Down:
The UF Biosafety Office Needs Your Participation!
Recent reports of lapses in biosafety practices involving Federal laboratories have served to remind us of the importance of adhering to robust biosafety standards. These events potentially put individuals at risk and undermine public confidence in the research enterprise. In response, the NIH has named September National Biosafety Stewardship Month.
As part of National Biosafety Stewardship Month, the UF Biosafety Office requests that all laboratories using and/or possessing BSL-2 and higher infectious agents and biological toxins submit a complete inventory by October 15th. A memo was sent out September 5th to all Deans, Directors, and Department Chairs at UF providing details of this request.
We want to emphasize that the inventory should include not only agents regularly in use, but agents in long term storage. As part of this inventory- please check your freezers as you may discover something you didn’t know you had!
Contact the Biosafety Office (392-1591) with any questions.
Announcement: The Biosafety Manual is now available online.
Mission Statement: Our mission is to protect UF employees, students, affiliates, the general public, and the environment from harmful biological materials. The UF Biosafety Program provides guidance on the appropriate containment principles, technologies, and practices needed to prevent accidental exposures or releases involving human, animal, or plant disease agents, recombinant DNA, biologically-derived toxins, or other biohazards. We work with UF’s life science research, health care, agricultural, and biotechnology communities to promote the safe handling and containment of these agents and to ensure compliance with local, state, federal, and international regulations for biohazards.
BIOSAFETY HANDOUTS
- Handling Biological Spills Updated 4/17/14
- Assembling a Biological Spill Kit
- Incident Management Procedures Updated 4/9/14
- Emergency Management Procedures Updated 4/9/14
- Biomedical Waste Guidelines Updated 11/14/14
- Do Not Recap Needles
- Eye-wash Testing Log
- Biohazard Decontamination Documentation
- Packaging Biological Waste
- Safety-Engineered Sharps
- Options for Collecting Non-Medical Sharps