The purpose of the University of Utah Biosafety manual is to specify the practices, procedures and requirements for the safe handling and use of biohazardous materials for research, clinical and teaching activities and can be downloaded here. Biohazardous materials and organisms include all infectious agents (bacteria, chlamydia, fungi, parasites, prions, rickettsia, viruses, etc.), which can cause disease in humans or cause significant environmental or agricultural impact, biological toxins, recombinant or synthetic nucleic acid molecules, human blood or tissues, animal cell cultures and work with animals known to be reservoirs of zoonotic diseases. This written program applies to all University of Utah research performed at the University Hospital and medical center, the Huntsman Cancer Institute, main campus, or at off-campus facilities. Students are covered as well as part and full time employees.
In addition, BSL2 or higher laboratories are required to maintain laboratory-specific biosafety manual Include laboratory-specific Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for all experiments involving biological agents, risk assessments for the agent, descriptions of personal protective equipment, procedures for using and decontaminating equipment, spill procedures and post-exposure plans, waste disposal and emergency equipment and practices. The PI should develop SOPs describing experimental procedures for working with biohazardous materials. The Institutional Biosafety Committee has developed templates for BSL2 and BSL2-enhanced laboratories that may be used by PIs as the basis for laboratory-specific biosafety manuals.