The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About1984-11-26450 BOARD OF HEALTH MEETING (SPECIAL) November 26, 1984 A special meeting of the Board of Health was held Monday, November 26, 1984 at 7:00 p.m. in Room G-1 (Recreation Office) of the Town Office Building. Members present were: Mr. Mames W. Lambie, Chairman; Howard B. Asarkof, D.D.S. and George A. Smith, Jr., Director of Public Health. James E. Quick, Ph.D. of the Board of Health Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee was also in attendance as was Mary Crawford, Lexington League of Women Voters member/monitor. The Meeting was called to hear a presentation by Ms. Lynn Harding, Biological Safety Officer, Harvard University on RDNA Laboratory Containment/Containment Procedures. Ms. Harding began with an overview of infectious disease laboratory practices. Existing RDNA containment procedures are derived from past, present and ongoing infectious disease related experimentation. Briefly. she touched on the types and percent of individuals that have experienced infections in infectious disease laboratories. These included: Research 80%, support 10%, clerical 6% and students 4%. Also she talked about the types of labs. These included: Research, Diagnostic, Industrial and teaching labs. She discussed risk assessment and its importance in evaluating laboratory safety/ precautions. The factors to be weighed include: Virulence, Infectious Dose, Organism Viability, Route/Portal of entry and Host susceptability, e.g. Healthy, immuni suppressed or ill health. She discussed containment and how that containment represented the primary barrier in laboratory work. Containment deals with work practices and safety equipment. She related that a secondary barrier was created through laboratory design, ventillation equipment, cleanable surfaces and handwashing stations. The levels of containment were discussed and the different classifications between cancer research, RDNA and human pathogens were mentioned as were how these containment levels were identified as P1, P2, P3 and P4. An explanation of these levels of containment were given and it was explained how each differed as compared to one another. The explanation was provided using a slide presentation. After completion of the presentation Ms. Harding answered questions presented by the Board of Health and others present. The meeting adjourned at 9:30 p.m. The Board thanked Ms. Harding and retired.