BIOSAFETY CONSIDERATIONS IN HANDLING MEDICALLY IMPORTANT FUNGI

Over 500,000 workers in the USA alone are employed in laboratories tha t range from small physician offices to large clinical laboratories ha ndling microbes for comprehensive research and/or diagnostic work. The se workers are exposed to a variety of potential occupational health r isks such as exposure to infectious clinical materials, environmental specimens, cultures, complex and inflammable chemicals, radiation, and electrical and mechanical hazards. As members of the International So ciety for human and Animal Mycology, we have no policy statement on bi osafety standards for handling medically important fungi. The intent o f the symposium is to cover some of the important aspects of biosafety . (1). standards in handling dimorphic fungal pathogenic; (2) the prin ciples and criteria of biosafety levels and classification of known me dically important fungi, aerobic actinomycetes, environmental fungi ac cording to their biosafety levels; (3) medically important fungal wast e and its safe disposal; and (4) biosafety and regulatory consideratio ns in handling and mailing medically important fungi in a culture coll ection.