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Minutes
of the ad hoc ACDP meeting held on Monday 4th December 2006 in Portable
Document Format Statement
from the ad hoc ACDP meeting held on Monday 4th December 2006 in Portable
Document Format Minutes
of the ad hoc ACDP meeting held on Friday 28th October 2005 in Portable
Document Format Biological
agents: The principles, design and operation of Containment Level 4 facilities Biological agents: The principles, design and operation of containment level 4 facilities is aimed at those responsible for working with the highest hazard pathogens with a particular focus on the way the legal requirement influence the design, construction, and operation of containment level 4 laboratories. The guidance is intended for all laboratories in which high hazard human pathogens may be handled; prevention of exposure and potential infection from these highly pathogenic organisms is important for both workers health and safety and public health. The guidance also usefully cross-refers and links to both animal pathogen and genetic modification organisms' legislation. Advice on Assessing the Risks of Working with Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Virus Publications of the Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens are available as follows: Controlling the risk of exposure to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) - Advice from the ACDP for Abattoir Workers Processing Other Thirty Month (OTM) Cattle Born After 1 August 1996. Biological
agents: managing the risks in laboratories and healthcare premises The ACDP has published new guidance Biological agents: managing the risks in laboratories and healthcare premises. Previous ACDP guidance has been aimed at those who deliberately work with biological agents in a laboratory setting, but this new guidance now also covers those laboratories that work with potentially infectious material more explicitly in line with the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH). Also covered, for the first time, is exposure to biological agents in the healthcare setting (both human and animal) as ACDP consider this to be the highest risk of exposure outside the laboratory. The intention is that this publication links the more specific pieces of ACDP guidance and provides advice on some of the more central themes of managing the risks from biological agents at work, such as risk assessment. It does not duplicate the more specific guidance on say, containment requirements, but signposts the reader to appropriate publications, both ACDP and other relevant publications. Guidance on the application of COSHH containment measures in the healthcare setting is new, but approach taken has been to link the control measures in COSHH with existing Department of Health and NHS guidance on control of infection. The aim of this guidance is not to further increase the burden on the healthcare sector, but to show how the process of risk assessment is an integral part of managing the control of infection, and that the control measures required by health and safety legislation should already largely be in place as part of the infection control policy. Infection at work: controlling the risk
The Infection at Work: controlling the risk guidance is especially aimed at those who may be incidentally exposed tobiological agents during the course of their work, such as farmers, refuse collectors and cleaners. This guidance
and the Managing the Risks guidance replace the 1995 'Categorisation of biological
agents according to hazard and categories of containment' guidance. Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy agents: safe working and the prevention of infection This guidance replaces the edition issued in March 1998. The identification of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) in March 1996, and the suggested link with consuming bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)-infected beef, led the Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens to review all of its guidance on work with the agents of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). This led to the publication in August 1996, of general occupational guidance for those such as abattoir workers who might be incidentally exposed to the BSE agent. Following the establishment of the Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP)/ Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) Joint Working Group on TSEs, another guidance document aimed at laboratory and Health Care Workers was published in April 1998, entitled "Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy agents: Safe working and the prevention of infection". When the first edition of "Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy Agents: Safe Working and the Prevention of Infection" was published a number of uncertainties, for example about routes of infection, infectious dose, inactivation of the agent, the potential number of people who may be incubating vCJD and the differences between sporadic and vCJD were clearly acknowledged. In the light of those uncertainties, a commitment was made to keep the guidance under review as more scientific information became available and any implications of the differences between the different forms of CJD became clearer. The ACDP/SEAC Joint Working Group (JWG) monitored new scientific information and results from a wide range of research projects on an on-going basis. It became clear that there was a need to update the 1998 Guidance and a drafting group was formed under the chairmanship of Professor Don Jeffries to carry out this work. Although the format of the revised TSE Guidance is essentially the same as the earlier, 1998, publication, this new version is significantly expanded, with additional annexes. The guidance is being published on the Department of Health CJD website, in sections, as they are prepared and endorsed by ACDP, SEAC and the JWG. Publishing in this way will facilitate easier updating of individual sections as further scientific information becomes available or future policy decisions need to be reflected. Advisory
Committee on Dangerous Pathogens and Advisory Committee on Genetic Modification.
Vaccination of laboratory workers handling vaccinia and related poxviruses infectious
for humans. Guidance
on the use, testing and maintenance of laboratory and animal flexible film isolators.
Precautions for work
with human and animal transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. Protection
against blood-borne infections in the workplace: HIV and hepatitis. HMSO London:
1995. ISBN 0-11-321953-9. Price £12. Revised Advice
on Laboratory Containment Measures for work with Tissue Samples in Clinical Cytogenetics
Laboratories in Portable Document Format BSE (Bovine
Spongiform Encephalopathy): Background and General Occupational Guidance. Management
and Control of Haemorrhagic
Fevers. Working Safely with Research Animals: Management of Infection
Risks. Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy Agents: Safe working
and the prevention of infection. The Large-Scale Contained use of Biological Agents. Biological Agents Bulletin - An ad-hoc publication This is published by the
ACDP secretariat. It aims is to give information on the work of the ACDP, including
new and forthcoming publications; news on the classification of biological agents;
and other issues and topics of interest to people working with biological agents.
The bulletin is aimed at workers in the laboratory and health care sectors, as
well as people with a public health interest in infectious disease. Bulletins
are available on the HSE website in Portable Document Format
The categorisation of biological agents is an Approved List made under section 15 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 impose requirements by reference to this Document, which are legally binding. The notice of approval signed by the Secretary of the Health and Safety Commission signals its legal status. The list implements the Community classification of biological agents set out in European Community Directive 93/88/EEC1, as amended by Commission Directives 95/30/EC2, 97/59/EC3 and 97/65/EC44. Further information and guidance on biological hazards at work can be found on the HSE Website: http://www.hse.gov.uk/biosafety Summaries of Selected ACDP Publications The guidance document Protection against blood-borne infections in the workplace: HIV and hepatitis was published in November 1995. Previous guidance documents on Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, which were produced by the ACDP in 1984, revised in 1986, and further revised in 1990 were aimed primarily at health care staff in hospitals, clinics and surgeries, and at laboratory workers. Despite the steady increase in the number of cases of HIV infection in the community, it was felt that there were dangers of complacency and lowering of standards for worker protection. In view of this the ACDP, at the request of the Department of Health and the HSE, undertook to revise the 1990 guidance document to reinforce the need to ensure that the small risk of occupational infection continues to be controlled. The guidance is primarily concerned with worker safety issues, and focuses on the controls, containment and procedures needed for the safe handling of blood-borne viruses and the material likely to contain them. The document takes into account changes to Health and Safety legislation and the most up to date scientific knowledge. The scope of the guidance has also been widened to include some other prominent infection hazards that are transmitted via blood in the same way as HIV, including hepatitis B, C and D viruses and human T-cell lymphotrophic virus. Specifically, the guidance provides:
Back
to list of publications Risk assessment is an area of increasing public interest,
especially where it impinges upon our health and prosperity. Outbreaks of plague
in India, Ebola virus in Zaire, and the HIV epidemic world-wide have heightened
the debate about how microbiological risks are identified and quantified, as well
as how the principles of risk-based approaches should influence policy-making.
Most importantly there is a need to ensure that current and future microbiological
hazards are managed against a background of sound knowledge of risk.
A wide range
of viruses can cause severe haemorrhagic disease in humans, the principal ones
being Ebola, Lassa, Marburg and Congo-Crimean. Whilst environmental conditions
in the UK do not support the natural reservoirs/vectors of VHF, it is necessary
to take precautions because of the possible importation of infections. Guidance for new and expectant
mothers at work was published in 1996. It contains advice on the application of
the Management of Health and Safety at Work (Amendment) Regulations 1994. It deals
with infectious hazards; physical and chemical hazards being dealt with in other
HSE guidance.
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