Elaboration of containment principles

For Group II GMOs, the regulations require releases to be minimised at B2 containment levels, and release to be prevented at B3 and B4 

In addition to the potential GMO hazard risk of the micro-organism, higher containment could be justified for other reasons  

The down-side of paying too much attention to containment is that a harmless GMO begins to take on the role of a hazardous chemical or radioactive substance. Containment therefore becomes counter-productive when process operators and the public question why special measures are being taken for a substance claimed to be harmless. 

The challenge therefore is to strike a sensible balance betwen the GMO hazard and the control measures. The problem historically has been a lack of good information to enable the general and qualitative requirements of the regulations to be translated into acceptable engineering design. The Industrial Biosafety Project has encouraged the development and collation of more data and information so that the problem can be solved on a more rational basis. 

---