FAS

Safety Standards for Microbiology Labs

05.07.09 | 1 min read | Text by Steven Aftergood

The U.S. Army yesterday issued a revised and updated safety policy for microbiology and biomedical laboratories.  The new policy “prescribes the technical safety requirements for the use, handling, transportation, transfer, storage, and disposal of infectious agents and toxins (IAT) rated at biosafety level 2 (BSL–2) and above.”  It applies to “all U.S. Army activities and facilities in which IAT are used.”

“Microbiological and biomedical activities are conducted by the U.S. Army in developing measures to identify, detect, diagnose, treat, and protect against IAT,” the 45 page document explains.  See “Safety Standards for Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories” (pdf), U.S. Army Pamphlet 385-69, May 6, 2009.

publications
See all publications
Global Risk
Report
Poison in our Communities: Impacts of the Nuclear Weapons Industry across America

As the United States continues nuclear modernization on all legs of its nuclear triad through the creation of new variants of warheads, missiles, and delivery platforms, examining the effects of nuclear weapons production on the public is ever more pressing.

08.07.25 | 2 min read
read more
Government Capacity
Blog
Direct File Is the Floor, Not the Ceiling

“The first rule of government transformation is: there are a lot of rules. And there should be-ish. But we don’t need to wait for permission to rewrite them. Let’s go fix and build some things and show how it’s done.”

08.06.25 | 5 min read
read more
Emerging Technology
Blog
Creating A Vision and Setting Course for the Science and Technology Ecosystem of 2050

To better understand what might drive the way we live, learn, and work in 2050, we’re asking the community to share their expertise and thoughts about how key factors like research and development infrastructure and automation will shape the trajectory of the ecosystem.

08.06.25 | 4 min read
read more
Emerging Technology
Blog
Why Listening Matters for Moonshot Programs: ARPA-I’s National Tour

Recognizing the power of the national transportation infrastructure expert community and its distributed expertise, ARPA-I took a different route that would instead bring the full collective brainpower to bear around appropriately ambitious ideas.

08.05.25 | 7 min read
read more