USAMRIID

Established in 1969, USAMRIID has decades of experience operating containment laboratories and has provided extensive training and consultation to other agencies setting up their own facilities. We consider safety—of our employees, our neighbors, and the surrounding community—our number one priority.

There are four levels of biological containment, ranging from Biosafety Level (BSL)-1, the lowest, to BSL-4, the highest. BSL-1 would be comparable to an open bench laboratory found in a school classroom—no special precautions would be needed. At BSL-2, USAMRIID employees wear laboratory coats and observe other basic precautions. For BSL-3 work, we require our personnel to change into scrub suits before entering the laboratory and take a complete shower before exiting. Other personal protective equipment may be required as well, depending on the tasks to be performed. BSL-4 is the highest level of containment, and employees wear positive-pressure suits commonly called "space suits" and breathe filtered air as they work.

Complete descriptions of the biosafety levels can be found in the Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL) handbook (5th Edition) at the following link:

http://www.cdc.gov/biosafety/publications/bmbl5/index.htm

In addition, a combination of rigorous training, meticulous procedures, tight security, carefully designed structures, and elaborate and redundant operating systems is in place to protect our laboratory workers. These measures also ensure the safety of those outside the suites. Investigators working in USAMRIID laboratories are highly trained to follow established safety procedures.

Heat, pressure, and chemical systems housed in the laboratory suites process and decontaminate all liquid and solid wastes completely, and air passes through high-efficiency particulate air filters, making all the liquid and air effluents safe before they leave the facility. Multiple redundancies in equipment and systems help to ensure that if an unexpected failure were to occur, a backup would be in place to maintain safety.

Investigators in the laboratories study tiny amounts of infectious agents and the diseases they cause in order to develop vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tools. USAMRIID's research involving infectious agents is reviewed and approved by the Institutional Biosafety Committee, the Animal Care and Use Committee, the Portfolio Review Committee, and other internal and external reviewers as applicable. No studies can take place without careful examination of all protocols to assess risks.

The laboratories at USAMRIID are inspected and overseen by the Department of the Army, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and many other agencies to ensure their safe and secure operation.