PRESS RELEASE
Indian Council of Agricultural Research-North East Hill Region, Umiam in collaboration with American Society for Microbiology (ASM), Washington and Society for Biosafety, India (SBS) is organizing a biosafety awareness programme with embedded workshops on Culture of Responsibility, Pathogen Inventory Management and Fundamentals of Working in Biosafety Cabinets during August 21st and 22nd, 2015. “Laboratory biosafety” refers to the application of combinations of laboratory practices and procedures, laboratory facilities, safety equipment, and appropriate occupational health programs to mitigate the risks associated with handling potentially infectious microorganisms and other biological hazards. India is in the process of establishing a chain of containment laboratories under human and animal health sectors. However, only a few are exposed to biosafety norms that are important in day-to-day working with high risk pathogens and operation of biosafety laboratories. In addition to bio-containment laboratories, the concept of biosafety needs to be extended to each and every establishment that handles infectious pathogens. The tie up between these three partners for addressing the biosafety issues in northeast India is the first effort that is expected to prime the researchers, academicians, and policy makers for ensuring the right work ethics in handling deadly containment agents. A total of 72 participants from academia, research organizations, hospitals, medical colleges, defence organizations, armed forces would be the mainstay in propagating the concept of biosafety within the north eastern region. Experts from SBS, Dr H.V. Murugkar, DR R. Sood and experts from ASM, Ms Janelle Winters are already at ICAR to facilitate the workshop along with the scientists of Division of Animal Health, ICAR. Dr S.V.Ngachan, Director, ICAR RC for NEH, Barapani would be the chairman of the workshop.