WASHINGTON, DC - In advance of tomorrow’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing on the safety and security of U.S. bioresearch labs, the House Energy and Commerce Committee today released a new report from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office. The report, “High-Containment Laboratories: Comprehensive and Up-to-Date Policies and Stronger Oversight Mechanisms Needed to Improve Safety," analyzed several departments and agencies and found that policies were not comprehensive or up to date.
According to GAO’s own summary, “Most of the 8 departments and 15 agencies that GAO reviewed had policies that were not comprehensive, and some departments and agencies had policies that were not up to date. Specifically, policies at 5 departments and 9 agencies were not comprehensive because they did not contain all six elements that GAO identified as key for managing biological agents in high-containment laboratories. … Three of the 8 departments, and 5 of the 15 agencies did not have policies. In addition, as of December 2015, 2 departments and 5 agencies did not have up-to-date policies."
GAO also noted while numerous safety lapses occurred in the last few years, HHS and DoD have made some progress in implementing recommendations from lab safety reviews, but have not developed sufficient implementation plans.
GAO made 33 recommendations in total, which they label as necessary.
“Safety lapses at our bioresearch labs have been a concern for quite some time. While I’m encouraged to hear that some improvements have been made after these lapses, the fact of the matter is that far too many have happened," said Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (R-PA). “We must ensure that labs working with hazardous materials have adequate procedures in place to protect the public."
* How Secure are U.S. Bioresearch Labs? Preventing the Next Safety Lapse.
