Biological Safety Cabinet Use

Biological Safety Cabinets (BSC) are the primary means of containment for working safely with infectious or potentially infectious materials. Biological Safety Cabinets operate by controlling and capturing particulate airborne contaminants during work through the use of laminar airflow and high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtration.

BSC Location in the Laboratory

The air curtain created at the front of the cabinet is fragile maintaining a downward and inward air velocity of a minimum 100 fpm. Since the air curtain created at the front of the cabinet can be easily disrupted, a BSC should be located away from air supply registers, door entrances/exits, and other high traffic areas.

Safe and effective BSC Use

Certification

The National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) International Standard no. 49 NSF International Standard NSF/ANSI-49 for Class II biohazard cabinetry establishes performance criteria as well as minimum requirements for design, .manufacture, and testing.

• A BSC in a BL1 and BL2 laboratory must be professionally certified after installation annually recertified, and recertified after being moved or service repair.
• A BSC in a BL3 laboratory must be certified after installation, annually recertified, and recertified after being moved or a serviced repair.
• A BSC in a BL4 laboratory must be certified after installation, annually recertified, and recertified after being moved or a serviced repair.

The BSC must be gas decontaminated by a certified vendor prior to moving, repairs requiring access to potentially contaminated plenums or disposal.  On a case-by-case basis, a BSC may be exempted from this gas decontamination based on a certification from the user that the BSC has been used for non-infectious BSL1 materials from the time that the BSC was purchased and installed.  This is subject to approval by the Biosafety Officer (BSO).  The application form for this certification may be found at the following link.