OCCUPATIONAL-HEALTH AND SAFETY IN THE BIOTECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY - A SURVEY OF PRACTICING PROFESSIONALS

A survey was created to gauge how health and safety (H&S) resources ar e allocated in the biotechnology industry and to help understand the c oncerns of industry H&S professionals. A questionnaire was distributed to ''the person most responsible for health and safety'' at 34 compan ies; 12 commercial firms responded. Nearly 68% of the work force monit ored did not fall into any biohazard classification. Almost 80% of wor k involving biohazards was considered ''exempt'' or ''BL-1'' under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classification system, ind icating that most work was performed involving organisms of low pathog enic potential. H&S program development and administration is mature; 100% of respondents report having written programs for chemical, biolo gical, and physical hazards. Chemical safety programs occupied, on ave rage, the greatest percentage of the H&S professionals' time (46%), fo llowed by biosafety (29.6%) and physical hazards (16.4%). The person m ost responsible for H&S averaged 65% of work time on H&S issues, while only 25% described their full-time responsibilities as H&S related. S taffing levels for companies with more than about 100 technical worker s approximated 1.0-1.5 full-time H&S staff equivalents per 100 technic al workers. This figure compares favorably with levels reported in a b enchmarking survey of hospitals. Investigation into accident rates as a measure of H&S program effectiveness suggests that the biotechnology industry is a relatively safe one. Lost time injury and illness rates were significantly lower for the 12 participating companies than the accident frequency rates in the Standard Industrial Classification cod es selected for comparison.