The ABSA International Technical and Regulatory Review Committee compiled a Summary of Changes and a Side-by-Side Comparison to the 6th edition of the CDC/NIH Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL-6) released in November of 2020. The BMBL-6 continues to be, since the first edition in 1984, an advisory document. Consequently, words such as “must” and “should” have been mostly removed.
In our review, we found updates to every section of the BMBL, from title changes to added references to include publications since 2009, when the 5th edition of the BMBL was published. We noticed, for example, new references to Zika and Vibrio cholera laboratory-acquired infections. So, do not skip the Reference section. In addition, four new appendices and a Glossary section have been included in the BMBL-6. The new appendices include Inactivation and Verification (Appendix K), Sustainability (Appendix L), Large-Scale Biosafety (Appendix M), and Clinical Laboratories (Appendix N).
As you read the CDC/NIH BMBL-6 be aware that most sections have been re-organized, and often you may think that an entry has been removed only to find it in another sub-section. Some tables have been removed, and new tables have been added, sometimes to include content from sections of text that was removed.
The intent of this Summary of Changes (PDF) and the Side-by-Side comparison (MS Excel) is to be used as help documents as you read the CDC/NIH BMBL-6, these should not be used as a substitution for consulting the BMBL-6.
Happy reading!
