What is a BSL 3 Facility?

A biosafety level is the level of the biocontainment precautions required to isolate dangerous biological agents in an enclosed facility.

The levels of containment range from the lowest biosafety level 1 to the highest at level 4. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have specified these levels.

High containment BSL 3 facilities are applicable to clinical, diagnostic, teaching, research, or production facilities in which work is done with indigenous or exotic agents which may cause serious or potentially lethal disease after inhalation. This includes various bacteria, parasites and viruses that can cause severe to fatal disease in humans, but for which vaccines or other treatment exist, such as Leishmania donovani, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Bacillus anthracis, West Nile virus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus, Eastern equine encephalitis virus, Hendra virus, SARS coronavirus, Salmonella typhi, Coxiella burnetii, Rift Valley fever virus, Rickettsia rickettsii, and yellow fever virus.

Laboratory personnel must have specific training in handling pathogenic and potentially lethal agents, and are supervised by competent scientists who are experienced in working with these agents.

All procedures involving the manipulation of infectious materials are conducted within biological safety cabinets, specially designed hoods, or other physical containment devices, or by personnel wearing appropriate personal protective clothing and equipment. The laboratory has special engineering and design features.

It is recognized, however, that some existing facilities may not have all the facility features required for Biosafety Level 3. This is why prefabricated high containment BSL 3 facilities are becoming the norm for research buildings.

Here are just 3 of the requirements for a facility to be BSL 3:

1. filtered exhaust air from the laboratory room is discharged to the outdoors
2. ventilation to the laboratory is balanced to provide directional airflow into the room
3. access to the laboratory is restricted when work is in progress

The decision to implement this modification of biosafety level 3 recommendations is made only by the laboratory director.

prefabricated high containment BSL 3 facilities