About EBSA15 - Course I. Biorisk management systems and the implementation of CWA 15793 - a practical approach (full day)

Instructors:
Toon De Kesel, Bayer CropScience, Gent/B
Juergen Mertsching, Hannover Medical School/D

Description:

Recent breaches of biosafety and biosecurity have emphasised that systematic management failure is normally the root cause of accidents and incidents with biological agents and toxins. Adopting the CWA 15793 can help organisations manage these risks.

The CWA 15793 - Laboratory Biorisk Management Standard - is the first internationally recognized management standard to specifically address hazards associated with laboratories where biological materials are handled at all containment levels. It sets out the requirements for a management system to enable organizations to effectively identify, monitor, and control risk associated with laboratory biosafety and biosecurity. It also provides a structured approach to managing risk associated with people, facilities and working procedures in laboratory environments.

With respect to individual state legislation, CWA 15793 is a compendium of all biosafety issues irrespectively of actual laws or administrative provisions. It defines key requirements encompassing all relevant laws and does not focus on the application of individual pieces of legislation. Therefore, the CWA 15793 document is deliberately general in order to accommodate national differences.

This interactive course aims to help you understand the fundamentals of the CWA 15793 and how it can be applied to your organization. It will present the principles of biorisk management, identify the multiple components of a biorisk programme and explore ways to integrate them into the management system(s) in place or to be developed in an institution. Some specific issues like the consideration of biosecurity aspects as part of biosafety management will be developed.

The course will be illustrated by examples of system implementation and a few exercises.