Surveillance of laboratory exposures to human pathogens and toxins, Canada, 2022

The Laboratory Incident Notification Canada (LINC) surveillance system was launched in 2015 to monitor the mandated national reporting of laboratory incidents. This report describes the laboratory exposures reported in 2022.

Exposure incidents were analyzed by activity, occurrence, sector, root cause and pathogens/toxins implicated, while affected individuals were analyzed by education, exposure route, role and years of laboratory experience. An analysis of the median number of exposures per month was conducted, and time between the exposure incident date and the date the incident was reported to LINC was examined.

Forty confirmed laboratory exposure incident reports were received, with two suspected laboratory-acquired infections. The exposure incident rate per 100 active licences was 3.8, and the number of exposure incidents was highest in September. The majority of exposure incidents involved risk group 2 pathogens (n=27; 63%) and non-security sensitive biological agents (n=36; 84%). Microbiology was the most cited activity occurring during the exposure event (n=20; 50%), and sharps and procedure-related issues were the most common occurrences (n=15; 24.2% each). Most incidents were reported by the academic sector (n=16; 40%). Human interaction was the most common root cause (n=20; 23.8%) and most affected individuals were technicians/technologists (n=68; 73.1%). The median time delay between the incident date and reporting date was 5.5 days.

The exposure incident rate was lower in 2022 than in 2021. Incidents related to sharps and standard operating procedures remained the most common occurrence types. The most cited root cause of exposure incidents involved human interaction.