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Maintaining differential pressure gradients does not increase safety inside modern BSL-4 laboratories

This article discusses a previously unrecognized contradiction in the design of biosafety level-4 (BSL-4) suit laboratories, also known as maximum or high containment laboratories. For decades, it is suggested that both directional airflow and pressure differentials are essential safety measures to...

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Autores principales: Kurth, Andreas, Weber, Udo, Reichenbacher, Detlef
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9468669/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36110311
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2022.953675
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author Kurth, Andreas
Weber, Udo
Reichenbacher, Detlef
author_facet Kurth, Andreas
Weber, Udo
Reichenbacher, Detlef
author_sort Kurth, Andreas
collection PubMed
description This article discusses a previously unrecognized contradiction in the design of biosafety level-4 (BSL-4) suit laboratories, also known as maximum or high containment laboratories. For decades, it is suggested that both directional airflow and pressure differentials are essential safety measures to prevent the release of pathogens into the environment and to avoid cross-contamination between laboratory rooms. Despite the absence of an existing evidence-based risk analyses demonstrating increased safety by directional airflow and pressure differentials in BSL-4 laboratories, they were anchored in various national regulations. Currently, the construction and operation of BSL-4 laboratories are subject to rigorous quality and technical requirements including airtight containment. Over time, BSL-4 laboratories evolved to enormously complex technical infrastructures. With the aim to counterbalance this development towards technical simplification while still maintaining maximum safety, we provide a detailed risk analysis by calculating pathogen mitigation in maximum contamination scenarios. The results presented and discussed herein, indicate that both directional airflow or a differential pressure gradient in airtight rooms within a secondary BSL-4 containment do not increase biosafety, and are not necessary. Likewise, reduction of pressure zones from the outside into the secondary containment may also provide sufficient environmental protection. We encourage laboratory design professionals to consider technical simplification and policymakers to adapt corresponding legislation and regulations surrounding directional airflow and pressure differentials for technically airtight BSL-4 laboratories.
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spelling pubmed-94686692022-09-14 Maintaining differential pressure gradients does not increase safety inside modern BSL-4 laboratories Kurth, Andreas Weber, Udo Reichenbacher, Detlef Front Bioeng Biotechnol Bioengineering and Biotechnology This article discusses a previously unrecognized contradiction in the design of biosafety level-4 (BSL-4) suit laboratories, also known as maximum or high containment laboratories. For decades, it is suggested that both directional airflow and pressure differentials are essential safety measures to prevent the release of pathogens into the environment and to avoid cross-contamination between laboratory rooms. Despite the absence of an existing evidence-based risk analyses demonstrating increased safety by directional airflow and pressure differentials in BSL-4 laboratories, they were anchored in various national regulations. Currently, the construction and operation of BSL-4 laboratories are subject to rigorous quality and technical requirements including airtight containment. Over time, BSL-4 laboratories evolved to enormously complex technical infrastructures. With the aim to counterbalance this development towards technical simplification while still maintaining maximum safety, we provide a detailed risk analysis by calculating pathogen mitigation in maximum contamination scenarios. The results presented and discussed herein, indicate that both directional airflow or a differential pressure gradient in airtight rooms within a secondary BSL-4 containment do not increase biosafety, and are not necessary. Likewise, reduction of pressure zones from the outside into the secondary containment may also provide sufficient environmental protection. We encourage laboratory design professionals to consider technical simplification and policymakers to adapt corresponding legislation and regulations surrounding directional airflow and pressure differentials for technically airtight BSL-4 laboratories. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-08-30 /pmc/articles/PMC9468669/ /pubmed/36110311 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2022.953675 Text en Copyright © 2022 Kurth, Weber and Reichenbacher. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Bioengineering and Biotechnology
Kurth, Andreas
Weber, Udo
Reichenbacher, Detlef
Maintaining differential pressure gradients does not increase safety inside modern BSL-4 laboratories
title Maintaining differential pressure gradients does not increase safety inside modern BSL-4 laboratories
title_full Maintaining differential pressure gradients does not increase safety inside modern BSL-4 laboratories
title_fullStr Maintaining differential pressure gradients does not increase safety inside modern BSL-4 laboratories
title_full_unstemmed Maintaining differential pressure gradients does not increase safety inside modern BSL-4 laboratories
title_short Maintaining differential pressure gradients does not increase safety inside modern BSL-4 laboratories
title_sort maintaining differential pressure gradients does not increase safety inside modern bsl-4 laboratories
topic Bioengineering and Biotechnology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9468669/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36110311
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2022.953675
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