Subject and Research Guides: Lab Safety Virtual Library: Biosafety

Key databases

Chemical hazards in industry This link opens in a new window
Search scientific and trade literature on safety and health hazards surrounding chemicals encountered in the chemical and related industries.
Coverage: 1981+
Health & safety science abstracts (Online) This link opens in a new window
Covers environmental health, occupational safety, pesticides, toxicology, emergency management, security and accidents.
Coverage: 1981+ Some full-text via Article Linker.
Risk abstracts This link opens in a new window
Covers risk arising from industrial, technological, environmental, and other sources, with an emphasis on assessment and management.
Coverage: 1990+ Some full text via Article Linker.
Toxicology abstracts (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Covers issues from social poisons and substance abuse to natural toxins, from legislation and recommended standards to environmental issue.
Coverage: 1981 + Some full-text via Article Linker

Toxnet
Toxnet has moved. As part of a broader NLM reorganization, most of NLM's toxicology information services have been integrated into other NLM products and services, for example chemical information is available via ChemIDPlus, toxicology literature via TOXLINE, comprehensive toxicology information via HSDB in PubChem. See the TOXNET landing page for more information.

Laboratory hazards bulletin This link opens in a new window
Search citations & abstracts for key information on hazards encountered by laboratory workers in all fields including R&D, analytical & hospital laboratories, scanned from the primary scientific and trade literature worldwide.

Key e-journals

Biotechnology Journal (BTJ) This link opens in a new window
BTJ promotes a special emphasis on Systems Biotechnology, High-Throughput and Microarray Technologies, Synthetic Biology and Metabolic Engineering, Nanobiotechnology, Translational Biotechnology, Applied Microbiology
Methods and Advances, and Biosafety, biotech ethics, science communication.
Electronic Journal of Biotechnology This link opens in a new window
Covers from molecular biology and the chemistry of biological processes to aquatic and earth environmental aspects, computational applications, policy and ethical issues directly related to Biotechnology.
Process Safety Progress This link opens in a new window
Addresses such topics as incident investigations/case histories, hazardous chemicals management, hazardous leaks prevention, risk assessment, process hazards evaluation, industrial hygiene, fire and explosion analysis, preventive maintenance, vapor cloud dispersion, and regulatory compliance, training, education, and other areas in process safety and loss prevention, including emerging concerns like plant and/or process security. Papers from the annual Loss Prevention Symposium and other AIChE safety conferences are automatically considered for publication, but unsolicited papers, particularly those addressing process safety issues in emerging technologies and industries are encouraged and evaluated equally.

Biosafety ebooks

Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories by U.S. Health Dept
Publication Date: 2010
An advisory document recommending best practices for the safe conduct of work in biomedical and clinical laboratories from a biosafety perspective.
Security Sensitive Biological Agent (SSBA) standards : standards for the handling, storage, disposal and transport of security sensitive biological agents and suspected security sensitive biological agents. by Commonwealth of Australia 2013
Publication Date: 2013
Standards for the handling, storage, disposal and transport of security sensitive biological agents and suspected security sensitive biological agents

Latest on biosafety in laboratories

From ScienceDirect database:

Relevant Act: The Gene Technology Act

The Gene Technology Act

"The object of the Act is to protect the health and safety of people, and the environment, by identifying risks posed by or as a result of gene technology, and by managing those risks through regulating certain dealings with genetically modified organisms (GMOs)."
(Office of the Gene Technology Regulator 2014, para. 4)

The Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OCTR)
Part of the Commonwealth Department of Health, The OGTR supports the Gene Technology Regulator (the Regulator).

Biosafety online

Guidelines for Biosafety in Teaching Laboratories (ASM)
Guidelines for safely handling microbes at both biosafety level 1 (BSL1) & at biosafety level 2 (BSL2), developed by the Education Board of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM).
Risk Group Database - American Biological Safety Association (ABSA)
Search microorganisms to find out what risk group they are in.
Risk Analysis Framework (OGTR)
Provides detailed background and explanation of risk analysis in the biosafety context.