Simulated Safety & Operations Training in Biolab Facility to Commence
Boston University
For Immediate Release
June 24, 2009
Contact: Ellen Berlin, 617-638-6838
(Boston) – Researchers preparing to work in the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories announced today that the simulated safety and training exercises announced last summer will begin late summer/early fall. The training will last six to eight months. Research is not being conducted nor are research agents being used at any time during these safety and operations training exercises.
In the initial phase of the exercises, scientists will test safety, health and operational procedures as they reenact all steps of a previously conducted experiment. In the next phase of the exercises, police, fire and other first responder agencies will participate and test emergency response procedures in the NEIDL.
Research is not being conducted nor are research agents being used at any time during these safety and operations training exercises.
“While the legal and regulatory issues on the use of the facility for biosafety research continue, we will use this time to train and familiarize research and safety personnel with the NEIDL. We will reenact a research project and all its processes and ensure that our standard operating procedures are appropriate and that our researchers and our community will be appropriately protected,” said Mark Klempner, Princicpal Investigator for the NEIDL.
The training exercises will be based on simulations of protocols from research previously published in scientific and research journals. The simulations will be full scale “walk through” dress rehearsals of each step in the process that led to acquiring the data that resulted in the published research.
These exercises will test and revise the scientific standard operating procedures (SOPs); overlay emergency responses (internal and external) to simulated incidents; and familiarize regulatory departments and agencies with laboratory operations. These will be some of the most comprehensive biosafety trainings ever simulated in a laboratory environment combined with the most extensive participation of internal and external personnel in a facility of this kind in the U.S.
To keep the community and other interested parties informed, Activity Reports will be posted regularly on the facility’s website (www.bu.edu/NEIDL). The reports will describe the processes that are being simulated and an evaluation of the activities including whether any changes need to made in the SOPs.
A temporary Certificate of Occupancy has been issued for the NEIDL following extensive tests/inspections in fire alarm systems, stair pressurization, elevator systems, life safety and a final approval by the Boston Inspectional Services Department. The City’s BioSafety Committee has also reviewed pertinent materials and concurs with the issuance of the limited Certificate of Occupancy. The facility will only be used for administrative and training purposes at this time. Research will not be conducted nor will any research agents be used at any time during these safety and operations training exercises.
The NEIDL is located on Albany Street on the Boston University Medical Campus in Boston’s South End. Construction on the facility began in March 2006 and was substantially completed in August. The $198 million facility is jointly funded by the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, a part of the National Institutes of Health and Boston University.
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