Posted October 28, 2021 by Dan Moser
UNL’s Environmental Health and Safety has enhanced its efforts in recent years to ensure biosafety and biosecurity for the campus.
EHS’s mission is to design and administer reliable and practical programs to achieve occupational, chemical, biological and radiation safety and environmental protection. Recent innovations include:
- Creation of a post-approval monitoring program for Institutional Biosafety Committee protocols for research with biological materials. This program includes brief periodic visits with faculty who have active IBC protocols to foster relationships and keep up with changing research so compliance with the UNL Biosafety Guidelines is ensured. The effort has reduced the number of non-compliance incidents reported to the National Institutes of Health by 40% since its implementation in April 2018 compared to the prior three-year period.
- Production of two safety videos as a supplement to available online training modules: Biosafety Cabinets and Autoclave Operation and Performance Testing.
- Implementation of a training outreach program to provide on-demand hands-on training on various biosafety topics. Topics include biosafety cabinet operations, spill clean-up procedures, proper donning and doffing of personal protective equipment, and bloodborne pathogens program training. Other topics may be available upon request.
October was Biosafety and Biosecurity Month. The Association for Biosafety and Biosecurity promoted Innovation in Biosafety and Biosecurity as the theme this year.
For more information, contact biosecurity officer Matt Anderson.
