Biosafety @ McMaster

McMaster University's Biosafety program meets the needs of individuals working with infectious materials (bacteria, virus, protozoa, fungi, toxins) across campus as well as those of the public. The implementation of this program complies with the current Human Pathogens and Toxins Act overseen by the Public Health Agency of Canada. McMaster is also subject to the legislative requirements of the Canada Food Inspection Agency with regards to animal, aquatic and plant pathogens. In the following pages, the term "biohazard" will be used to encompass all of the above mentioned in addition to prions.

The Presidential Biosafety Advisory Committee provides review and approval for biohazard projects as well as providing support for the educational activities of McMaster and its biocontainment facilities.

As a responsible institution, McMaster's Biosafety program performs a number of functions:

• maintain an inventory of biohazards used in McMaster affiliated research laboratories
• facilitates legislative compliance among McMaster researchers who use biohazards
• facilitates legislative compliance among McMaster researchers who use biohazards in conjunction with animals, plants, aquatics or humans
• acts as a resource for Biosafety related issues, particularly with new faculty, staff and students and hosted associates
• facilitates the importation of biohazards from outside of Canada
• facilitates the transfer of biohazards within Canada
• facilitates the provision of documentation required by funding agencies to ensure proposed work may be carried out by the applicant(s)
• provides training for use of containment levels 1 to 3

The horizontal menu bar above will bring you to the main areas of inquiry around Biosafety @ McMaster. Those items which do not fall into one of the above categories, will occur in the Biosafety A to Z listing. Should you not find what you are looking for, please send us an email so we may update our pages.