Why the world has no universal biosafety standards
BMJ 2022; 377 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.o992 (Published 20 April 2022) Cite this as: BMJ 2022;377:o992
This article by Andrew Silver (BMJ 2022;377:o954; doi:10.1136/bmj.o954) has been amended online to correct an error highlighted by the World Health Organization.
WHO advises that the following description in the original article did not properly represent WHO’s (and the World Organisation for Animal Health’s) present position: “WHO classifies micro-organisms into four risk groups, and laboratories into corresponding safety levels, with 4 the highest risk.”
WHO explains that these notions were abolished in the publication of the WHO Laboratory Biosafety Manual 4th edition (LBM4), which promotes an evidence based and risk based approach, as opposed to such static and pre-defined classifications.
The sentence has been amended in the online version of the BMJ article as follows: “WHO previously classified micro-organisms into four risk groups, and laboratories into corresponding safety levels, with 4 the highest risk.”