The following copies were considered to be of special relevance: 
1. In the United States and the United Kingdom lists of agents infective for man and animals 
are in existence (3,4). The agents are grouped with reference to their danger. The group 
believed that plant pathogens and agents infective for cells in tissue culture should be added 
and chat each country should prepare such a list so Chat their groupings reflect specific 
safety situations, e.g. yellow fever virus will only be a Class 4/Category A pathogen wherever 
the insect vector is to be found. 
2. A parallel list of microbial toxins should also be prepared, since the treatment of those 
exposed requires the expertise of medical microbiologists. The handling of other biological 
toxins such as snake venoms also requires attention but the group found that recommendations 
for including such substances in this list should be left to national expertise. 
3. A number of codes of practice for the safe handling of dangerous organisms, including 
organisms containing new genetic combinations, have been formulated (8, 9). The group agreed 
that these should be compared and presented as a framework to help che Member States of WHO to 
elaborate national guidelines for safety measures in microbiology. These national guidelines 
should specify the minimum requirements for the safe handling of infective microorganisms, 
including those containing new genetic combinations. 
4. The group believed that it should be possible for the Member States of WHO to coordinate 
their codes of basic practice in the following areas: 
a) Each laboratory, or group of laboratories, handling dangerous microorganisms should 
have both a safety conmittee and a designated biological safety officer. 
b) The biological safety officer should have experience in handling microbes or have 
been specifically trained. All laboratory staff should receive instruction in safety 
practice. Formal courses should be organized and meetings arranged for the presentation 
and discussion of safety measures. Some countries have already arranged such meetings.* 
c) The medical surveillance of staff should be mandatory. All laboratory accidents 
involving the release of potentially dangerous organisms must be reported to the health 
authorities. Where Class 4/Category A pathogens are being handled, the family of staff 
members should be included in the medical surveillance. 
d) The existing codes of practice (3, 4, 8, 9) relate the degree of physical containment 
required for the laboratory to the danger from the organism. Thus work with Marburg 
disease agent necessitates a maximum security laboratory whereas agents of no hazard may 
be handled in a microbiological laboratory without special apparatus or equipment. 
Similar codes have been applied to potentially dangerous experiments with organisms 
containing new genetic combinations. 
5. The group believed that it would be desirable for countries to designate reference centres 
for the establishment of laboratory safety measures, the provision of advisory services, the 
collection and transmission of data and the general monitoring of laboratories. 
6. Paragraphs 4 (a) to 4 (d) apply equally to research involving organisms produced by 
techniques of new genetic recombination, but the group wished to add the following: 
a) No outright restriction on such experiments should be applied although meticulous 
technique and requirements for containment must be observed. 
* Information on relevant training programmes in the USA can be obtained from the Center for 
Disease Control (Dr Richardson) and National Institutes of Health (Dr Gartland). 
VI-9 
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