AUTHOR=Pastorino Boris , de Lamballerie Xavier , Charrel Rémi 

TITLE=Biosafety and Biosecurity in European Containment Level 3 Laboratories: Focus on French Recent Progress and Essential Requirements

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 5 - 2017

YEAR=2017

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2017.00121

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2017.00121

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=Even if European Members are obliged to implement EU Directives 2000/54/EC on the protection of workers from risks related to exposure to biological agents at work, national biosafety regulations and practices varied from country to country.  In fact, European legislation on biological agents and Genetically Modified Microorganisms is often not specific enough to ensure harmonization leading to difficulties in implementation for most laboratories. In the same way, biosecurity is a relatively new concept and a few Member States are known to have introduced special laboratory biosecurity legislation. In France, recent regulations have reinforced biosafety/biosecurity in containment level 3 (CL-3) laboratories but they concern a specific list of pathogens with no correlation in others European Members States. The objective of this review was to resume European biosafety/biosecurity measures concerning CL-3 facilities focusing on French specificities. Some important aspects have been identified and developed to highlight essential requirements needed to manipulate safely risk group 3 biological agents. In addition, European or French standards related to containment laboratory planning, operation or biosafety equipment are described to clarify optimal biosafety and biosecurity requirements.