September 26, 2014, NIH Record, Vol. LXVI, No. 20
SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 The Second Best Thing About Payday VOL. LXVI, NO. 20 ‘Sweep’ Under Way for Select Agents, Toxins By Rich McManus ABOVE · You would smile too if you were rompted by the Food and Drug Administration’s July 1 discovery of vials of about to foil the flu. See story on p. 8. Psmallpox virus in Bldg. 29A, NIH has embarked on Operation Clean Sweep, a two-part, top-to-bottom inventory of all NIH laboratories that starts first with all features institutes and centers, followed by an audit conducted by specialists in occupational safety and health. 1 After discovery of 12 boxes containing 327 vials of infectious agents such as small- Comprehensive Search Under Way For Mislaid, Forgotten Samples pox, dengue, influenza, Q fever and rickettsia, NIH director Dr. Francis Collins in- formed employees, “We have developed a plan of action for the conduct of this search. 3 It requires investigators to examine all freezers, refrigerators, cold rooms, storage Blaser To Give Kinyoun Lecture shelves and cabinets, as well as all other areas of storage such as offices associated 5 with laboratories.” Keller Lecture Highlights Alcohol The IC portion of the sweep has two parts, said Jeff Potts, NIH biorisk manager in Research the Division of Occupational Health and Safety (DOHS). “In phase 1, research staff at 12 all NIH facilities are responsible for going through their areas to search for unregis- BIG Training Session Targets STEM, tered select agents [such as Ebola, anthrax and H5N1 bird flu]. They must also inven- Personal Health tory all human pathogenic material that is handled at BSL [biosafety level] 2 or higher, human blood and body fluids and any toxins.” This is scheduled to be done by Sept.
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