Laboratory Biosafety
Laboratory biosafety – what it is and why it matters
Laboratory biosafety is the discipline of managing biological risks within a laboratory setting. It covers the identification, assessment and control of hazards arising from work with biological agents – bacteria, viruses, fungi, toxins and biological materials that can cause harm to people or the environment.
Five factors shape every laboratory biosafety programme: the pathogens being handled, the procedures used to handle them including risk controls in place, the protective equipment available to staff, the personnel carrying out the work, and the physical place – the facility itself. Each must be assessed together. Changing one changes the risk profile of all the others.
In New Zealand, laboratory biosafety sits within a regulatory framework that includes the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), the Ministry of Health (MoH), and where applicable, the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act (HSNO Act). The international standard for biorisk management in laboratories is ISO 35001:2019.
LabABC provides specialist laboratory biosafety consulting. Dr Richard Spence’s experience spans PC2 through to the most demanding high biocontainment environments, including operational management of New Zealand’s National Biocontainment Laboratory.
Biological risk assessment and mitigation
A biological risk assessment identifies the hazards in your laboratory, evaluates the likelihood and consequences of exposure, and sets out the controls needed to reduce risk to an acceptable level.
There is no standard template for this work. The right risk assessment has to be tailored to each facility and situation.
We conduct biological risk assessments grounded in ISO 35001:2019 and based on lived, real-life experience of managing high-risk laboratory environments. We also identify gaps in your current biorisk management systems and provide practical guidance on how to close them.
Training and mentoring for laboratory managers and biosafety officers
New laboratory managers and biosafety officers often have limited support. They inherit a role, a programme, and a set of regulatory obligations, with little practical guidance on how to manage any of them.
We provide hands-on training and mentoring for laboratory managers and biosafety officers. This is not a certificate course. It is operational support – specific to your laboratory, your pathogens, and your regulatory environment.
Mentoring is available to individuals working through their first years in a laboratory management or biosafety role and to organisations building their internal biosafety capability for the first time.
Contact us to discuss training and mentoring for your laboratory.
Biosafety performance management
Laboratory biosafety is not a one-time exercise. It requires ongoing management – regular reviews, updated risk assessments, training records, incident investigation, and corrective action.
We support laboratories to build and maintain biosafety programmes that hold up under regulatory and operational scrutiny. This includes gap analysis against current standards, performance reviews, and practical recommendations for improvement.
Assurance of laboratory performance
Laboratories need all management systems to be robust and fit-for-purpose so that compliance is maintained and services are delivered effectively and efficiently. With our breadth of experience across operational laboratory management we can provide development, performance monitoring and review of laboratory systems as well as transition planning and relocation and strategic planning.
The four biosafety levels
Biosafety levels classify the containment requirements for work with biological agents, from lowest to highest risk. New Zealand uses physical containment (PC) terminology, which corresponds to the BSL terminology used internationally.
Standard microbiological practices. Work with agents not known to cause disease in healthy adults.
Moderate-risk agents. Work with agents that can cause human disease but are rarely serious and for which treatment or preventive measures are available. Most clinical and diagnostic laboratories operate at this level.
Serious-risk agents. Work with indigenous or exotic agents that may cause serious or lethal disease through inhalation. Requires specialist facility design and controlled access.
High-risk agents. Work with dangerous or exotic agents posing a high risk of life-threatening disease, for which no vaccines or therapies are available. Operated under maximum containment conditions.
Richard Spence has worked across PC2 through to PC3 environments in the UK and New Zealand, including as senior user representative for New Zealand’s National Biocontainment Laboratory. Learn more about his background.
Get started
If your laboratory needs a biosafety assessment, a risk management review, or practical support for a biosafety manager, get in touch.
Laboratory biosafety and laboratory containment are closely related disciplines. If your work involves high containment environments, our containment services may also be relevant.
