There is so much to learn about biosafety compliance but health and safety regulations require that employees are provided with information and training to carry out their work safely. You can learn more about biosafety and at your convenience by taking our IOSH approved biosafety course. After completion of this course you will receive a certificate from IOSH.
Compliance and Enforcement
If your organisation will be working with biological agents (bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi), you will need to check whether they are listed on the Approved List of biological agents. The Approved List of biological agents is a compilation of named biological agents. It was prepared by the Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP) and is approved by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
Accordingly, the HSE are enforcers of United Kingdom (UK) health and safety legislation. In the Approved List, you will see that each biological agent is assigned to a category. These categories are together called, hazard group (HG). Hazard group is a way of assigning the level of risk associated with a biological agent. There are four hazard group categories: HG1, HG2, HG3 and HG4. The higher the number the greater the risk.
Biological Hazard Group Classifications
Hazard group 1 biological agents are described as having no risk to human health. Hazard group 4 are the ones that cause the greatest harm, and are often the bad guys in films like “Contagion”. If you want to work with these biological agents in their purest form (scientists call this wild type), in the UK you must notify the HSE and gain approval before work can begin. This must be done for HG2, HG3 and HG4 biological agents.
You must check that the most recent edition is being used. At the time of writing this article (May 2025), the fifth edition is most recent. Hazard group 1 biological agents are not listed. If you can’t find the biological agent your organisation wishes to work with on the Approved List, you must not assume that it is hazard group – Specifically, you must use reasonable judgement, research and justification to assign the biological agent to a hazard group.
It is very important to get the classification correct, because this enables you have a basic idea of the risk. The official terminology in the UK is hazard group. Additionally, it is important to realise other non-official terms are used. Eventually, you may come across them, or indeed, you may have already used them in your organisation. These are: ACDP 1, ACDP 2, ACDP 3 and ACDP 4 (where ACDP really means Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens. Another non-official term is BSL 1, BSL 2, BSL 3 and BSL 4 (where BSL really means biosafety level, an American terminology).
Biosafety Support Snippets
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