NBAF UPDATE | Safety is fundamental to our success themercury.com/opinion/n…

At a world-class science facility with a large animal biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory like the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), establishing a safety culture across all areas is one of USDA’s highest priorities.

Safety is a responsibility of every NBAF employee. We have hired teams of professionals who are dedicated to planning and facilitating all our safety efforts and others focused specifically on safety in our biocontainment labs. We also have established the NBAF Safety Committee comprised of volunteers across the organization to assist in education and awareness campaigns and ensure everyone at all levels has a voice in safety. These teams are essential to NBAF’s mission, but we want to incorporate a safety culture throughout NBAF, not just within a few critical groups.

We are working hard to develop that culture before the facility even opens. For example, we start every meeting of five or more people with a brief safety presentation — even virtual meetings. The topics range from the expected themes like biological risk safety practices and animal handling to general tips about weather safety and good health practices. Employee responses to these discussions have been overwhelmingly positive.