David Harbourt, PhD, RBP, CBSP, SM(NRCM), Biosafety Officer, USAMRIID

It is important that biosafety professionals understand how to respond to emergency response situations that could affect operations in containment laboratories.  Emergency situations can affect a wide range of facility operations (electrical failures, plumbing, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), etc.) and often occur with little or no warning to the biosafety professionals, scientific staff or support staff.  Biosafety professionals need to be able to thoroughly understand how their facility and personnel function during normal operations to aid in preparation for significant events.  In addition to understanding their facility and personnel, it is also vital for biosafety professionals to know who the key decision makers are in their facility for situations that could potentially result in short term and/or long term disruptions to operations.  By understanding how their facility is intended to function, who the key decision makers are and the critical information that is needed for the key decision makers during emergency scenarios, biosafety professionals can help ensure that they are prepared when situations arise in the future.

This course is intended to cover some basic information of emergency response situations along with the key features of a containment laboratory that may be affected during an emergency situation.  This course will go over the key aspects of an HVAC, building electrical design, and plumbing systems.    This will not be an engineering course; it is intended to be a brief overview so biosafety professionals understand the right questions to ask during emergency situations.

The course will be separated into five sections, basics of emergency response, HVAC, plumbing, electrical failures, and potential occupational exposures.  Each section will cover the critical information that biosafety professionals must understand in each area followed by a series of case studies based on real world emergency response situations in biocontainment laboratories. 

Key Objectives:

1. Understand the basics of emergency response and how they relate to biocontainment laboratory operations

2. Understand the decision making process during an emergency response situation.

3. Understand who the key decision makers are in your facility and who can authorize decisions that will impact mission operations.

4. Identify lessons learned from case studies and apply them to their own incident response plan if applicable.