Biosafety and Bioethics

Biosafety prevents large-scale loss of biological integrity, focusing both on ecology and human health. These prevention mechanisms include the conduction of regular biosafety reviews in laboratory settings and strict guidelines to follow. Biosafety is used to protect from harmful incidents.

Many laboratories handling biohazards employ an ongoing risk management assessment and enforcement process for biosafety. Failures to follow such protocols can lead to an increased risk of exposure to biohazards or pathogens. Human error and poor technique contribute to unnecessary exposure and compromise the best safeguards for protection.

Biosafety is related to several fields:In ecology (referring to imported life forms from beyond ecoregion borders),In agriculture (reducing the risk of alien viral or transgenic genes, genetic engineering, or prions such as BSE/"MadCow", reducing the risk of food bacterial contamination)In medicine (referring to organs or tissues of biological origin, genetic therapy products, viruses; levels of lab containment protocols measured as 1, 2, 3, 4 in rising order of danger),In chemistry (i. e. , nitrates in water, PCB levels affecting fertility)In exobiology (i.

e. , NASA's policy for containing alien microbes that may exist on space samples. See planetary protection and interplanetary contamination), andIn synthetic biology (referring to the risks associated with this type of lab practice)Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, medicine, and technologies.