Preparing Equipment to be Serviced By Outside Personnel

Some equipment in the BSL-3 facility will need to be serviced regularly or might need maintenance. The Laboratory Manager should be notified that equipment within the facility needs service or repair. The equipment will either have to be shipped out to the contractor or be serviced in-house.

A. Shipping Equipment

The equipment to be serviced must be completely disinfected before removal from the facility. This procedure is usually no more extensive than a thorough swabbing of the equipment with 70% ethanol.

B. In-House Service

In such circumstances, the BSL-3 facility must be made safe for the outside personnel before service can be carried out. The Laboratory Manager will be given written notice by Physical Plant of the appointed time of service, and will then inform all the BSL-3 facility users of the expected disruption with as much time in advance as possible. One day before the work is due to start, the Laboratory Manager will ensure that the equipment to be serviced and all surfaces with which the service personnel are likely to come in contact with have been thoroughly disinfected. The Laboratory Manager will also bar access to all other areas of the BSL-3 facility. Physical Plant or the service personnel will then inform the Laboratory Manager when work has been completed.

In addition, all work by BSL-3 users must stop. Under no circumstances may any manipulations of infectious material be carried out by any BSL-3 user during the period of in-house servicing by outside personnel.

If superficial disinfection procedures are inadequate to protect the service personnel, fumigation of the laboratory will be necessary (see Section 16). In such cases, all authorized personnel will be contacted before fumigation and given at least one week's notice, whenever possible.

The Wistar Institute
Biosaftey Level 3 Laboratory Code of Practice