Let us now take a closer look at each one of these three baskets of controls, one by one. First, practices and procedures. How people work with the pathogens maybe the most important of the three controls, but it may also be the weakest because it is very dependent upon people doing the right thing. This underlines the need for good training, good standard operating procedures and oversight, to ensure that people do procedures correctly.
I want you to stop here for just a few minutes and write down, ten good practices and procedures that you know reduce biorisk in your laboratory. This includes both biosafety and biosecurity. I am sure you are familiar with many good techniques and practices that control biorisk. There may be many more, but for now just write down 10.
Here is my list of important practices and procedures. This is not an exhaustive or complete list, but just highlights some of the main ones.

One of the first and more useful practices that needs to be employed is limiting access to the laboratory and animal facilities. We cannot have the public coming into spaces where there are pathogens being used. We cannot even have unauthorized laboratory staff in specific areas of the facility, because they may not have the correct training or the right personal protective equipment. Ensure that access to laboratories and animal biohazard containment is limited to essential personnel only.

Number two – Strict adherence to good microbiological practices and techniques. Making sure that you are controlling where the pathogen is at all times. Controlling any cross contamination. Doing things very carefully and meticulously. Good aseptic technique is a real cornerstone to doing good microbiology, good quality control, good quality assurance and of course, good biorisk management.

Three – No eating drinking or smoking in the laboratory. As you know, one of the ways pathogens enter the body, is through ingestion. Therefore, if you are eating, drinking, or smoking in the laboratory, there is a potential for what you are putting in your mouth to be contaminated. Make sure that the workers are aware of the ingestion hazards when working with biohazards, particularly in the animal rooms. To prevent this, make sure that spaces where people eat, drink and smoke are separated from the place where the pathogens are being handled.

Four – Minimizing inhalation risks by limiting aerosol creation and using primary containment or barriers. Work practices must be done carefully to minimize the creation of aerosols and lower the inhalation risk. Whenever possible work should be done inside a biosafety cabinet or ventilated enclosure to keep aerosols away from our breathing zone.
Five – Eliminate or minimize the use of sharps. If possible, eliminate or limit the use of glass, needles, scalpels and other sharp objects in the laboratory and vivarium. If a sharp must be used, consider substitution with an engineered safe sharp. Do not forget, if you work with animals, they also have a lot of sharps that need to be managed.

Six – Clothes change. Personal protective clothing can potentially be contaminated from splatters and splashes during work. Therefore, always leave all the PPE at the laboratory door before you leave the laboratory. If you have additional rooms within the laboratory, you may also wish to leave your personal protective equipment at the procedure room door as you exit to the laboratory. To enable this activity, have hooks by the doors, chairs to sit on and storage space to ensure people can change their clothing.

Seven – Signage. We see signs all over the world in many places indicating what we should be doing and how we should be doing them. This is the same in the biomedical laboratories where we working. Signage is an important way to communicate what potential hazards may exist and what you can do to protect yourself.

Eight – Containment when moving pathogens. Make sure that the pathogens are always contained in proper spill proof containment of some kind with the lids sealed. Try to put them on a cart when moving down a hallway. If moving between laboratories put signage on the outside of the containers so people know that there is a bio hazard inside.

Nine – Proper biowaste handling and disposal. You must have good practices and equipment in place to protect the community and the environment inside and outside your facilities from becoming contaminated. You must handle your waste correctly, because you are the users and generators and therefore responsible for managing it.

Ten – Decontaminate all work areas. As you know, all the activities you do in the laboratory may potentially contaminate work surfaces, such as the work bench, the inside of the biosafety cabinet, the inside of the incubator and any equipment used. Therefore, you must make sure to decontaminate all work surfaces routinely. It is very important to make sure the disinfectants used are effective for the agents in use.

And finally, another good laboratory practice is to wash your hands after any glove change, before leaving the laboratory and before going home. Washing your hands is the most effective method of making sure you remove all microbiological and chemical contaminants from your hands. The best method of removing pathogens from your hands is using soap and water for at least thirty seconds.

As a review for this section, I want to remind you that practices and procedures are really all about people doing the right things. You want to make sure the staff working in the laboratory are handling the pathogens in a correct way. There are many good laboratory practices that must be followed to ensure good biorisk management occurs.