Occupational safety in genetic engineering facilities in times of Corona

If you enter these two terms into a search engine, you will inevitably land on the website of the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (linkhttps://www.bmas.de/DE/Schwerpunkte/Informationen-Corona/Arbeitsschutz/arbeitsschutz.html ). The publication "SARS-CoV-2 Occupational Safety Standard" of April 16, 2020, has been published there since April 20, 2020 (available for download as a PDF at the very bottom of the page). This general statement applies as long as no more specific occupational safety standards exist for specific areas - for example, for hairdressers. Consequently, as long as there are no specific occupational safety standards for genetic engineering laboratories, these requirements must also be observed in genetic engineering laboratories and biological material laboratories. This is not about working with coronaviruses as a biological agent (see the ZKBS statement above) Link to separate page, but about compliance with the established occupational health and safety measures designed to prevent the risk of infection and contagion for employees and thus also the spread of the pathogen. The employer is responsible for compliance and must be advised by occupational safety specialists and company physicians. The company descriptions must be adapted accordingly. As always in our laboratories, a distinction is made between special technical, organizational, and personal (TOP) measures: Technical workplace design measures include maintaining sufficient distance (at least 1.5 m) from other people. Where this is not possible even through work organization measures, alternative protective measures must be taken. Transparent covers must be installed where there is public access and, if possible, to separate workstations where a protective distance would otherwise not be maintained. Organizational measures include adapting the use of traffic routes so that sufficient distance can be maintained; appropriate standing areas must be marked with adhesive tape. Even when several employees work together (an assembly area was mentioned), the minimum distance between employees of 1.5 m should be guaranteed. Where this cannot be guaranteed for technical or organizational reasons, alternative measures (wearing mouth and nose coverings) must be taken (personal measures). Anyone who cannot guarantee the minimum distance of 1.5 m between employees must demarcate workstations with plexiglass covers, mark out waiting areas or access areas to ensure the minimum distance is maintained, and if this is not possible, order the wearing of mouth and nose coverings (masks). Those who have attended an AGCT project manager course know the meaning of the terms must and are... to be taken. These are mandatory requirements from which the authorities cannot grant any exceptions - even in the most justified individual cases. If the wearing of mouth and nose coverings is prescribed as a personal measure, they must be handled in the same way as laboratories are already familiar with from the lab coat discussion, i.e. no leaving the laboratory with the mouth and nose covering, no washing baby clothes at home...