Health, safety and environmental protection in a biological research laboratory

This manuscript summarizes the mandatory regulations for Health, safety and environmental protection (HSE) at the Novartis Forschungsinstitut-Vienna to ensure the safe and contained biological laboratory work especially with class II agents in the specialized biosafety level 2 (BL2) facilities available at this institute. These regulations apply to work practices conducted within these facilities; to special safe-containment features of these BL2 facilities; to containment and decontamination of biohazardous or potentially biohazardous materials of risk class II; and to the procedures in place to guarantee that these regulations are strictly carried out, and that only individuals with the appropriate training and approval have access to these facilities. The regulations governing BL2 facilities summarized here have been taken directly from CDC and NIH public documents; any special adaptations or additions to these regulations have been stated as such, in order to make these guidelines as transparent and nonredundant as possible.