Biocontainment laboratories

The working surface is free from cracks and joints. BIOCONTAINMENT LABORATORIES... 

Biocontainment laboratories are special work environments which often require special design and equipment to protect the workers and the experiments. 

The "P" has been replaced with "BSL" or Biosafety Level. There are four biosafety levels which are defined according to a combination of facility design, laboratory practices and techniques, equipment and health and safety controls. It is not practical to try to completely describe all of the features and definitions pertaining to biocontainment laboratories in a chapter dedicated to an overview of design. Therefore, we will concentrate on the elements of building design for "maximum containment" or BSL-4 facilities. 

Unheard of amounts of federal funds is going into the construction of biocontainment laboratories, or hot labs, where the deadliest biological agents and potential bioweapons can be studied, researched and analyzed. These new hot labs would be mainly Biosafety Level 4 and Biosafety Level 3 laboratories dealing with infectious agents and toxins, the worst kind as far as danger and safety is concerned. 

For both fire safety, health considerations, and proper functioning of fume hoods the air pressure of laboratory areas must be negative relative to surrounding areas. The only exception to this is for certain biocontainment applications. These applications usually require very specific ventilation requirements which will not be addressed. Also, all laboratory ventilation systems, especially fume hoods, should incorporate low flow warning devices. 

Some of these studies are small in size and scope, therefore, lending themselves to outsourcing. Except in cases where the BSL category would limit its location, these studies could be performed inside or outside of DoD. The construction of the new BSL4 at University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) provides an example of a conduit for performing even high biocontainment agent studies outside of DoD. The new DoD laboratories will have expanded capacity to do this work as well. 

Bare, A.R. A pressurization strategies for biocontainment. R D Laboratory Design Handbook (11) 59B63, 2006. 

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