American Biological Safety Association

The American Biological Safety Association (ABSA) was founded in 1984 to promote biological safety as a scientific discipline and serve the needs of biosafety professionals. The Association's goals are to represents the interests and needs of practitioners of biosafety, and to provide a forum for exchange of biosafety information.

The concept of containment principles, facility design, and practices and procedures to prevent occupational infections in the workplace or release of the organisms to the environment.

History

In 2007, the American Biological Safety Association entered into an agreement with the National Agricultural Library for the library to process, preserve, and provide access to the collection which documents the history of the Association. Rachel Telford, Special Collections Intern from the University of Maryland, completed the processing at the National Agricultural Library in 2008. The following history is taken from that collection.

The American Biological Safety Association (ABSA) was founded in 1984 to promote biosafety as a scientific discipline and to serve the growing needs of biosafety professionals throughout the world. Biosafety concerns the safe handling of biological materials, particularly infectious agents that cause risk to humans working with them. Although ABSA was officially founded in 1984, almost 30 years earlier, on April 18, 1955, 14 representatives from biosafety issues and regulatory initiatives, and offering registration and certification, ABSA publishes and distributes a quarterly journal, Applied Biosafety, and conducts a selection of biosafety courses geared at the beginner and advanced levels. In addition, ABSA produces an annual membership directory to stimulate networking. ABSA is committed to its members in four broad areas: developing and maintaining professional standards for the field of biological safety; advancing biological safety as a scientific discipline through education and research; providing members sustained opportunities for biosafety communication, education, and participation in the development of biological safety standards, guidelines and regulations; and expanding biosafety awareness and promoting the development of work practices, equipment, and facilities to reduce the potential for occupational illness and adverse environmental impact from infectious agents or biologically derived materials.

• A History of ABSA Part I: The First Ten Biological Safety Conferences 1955 - 1965—Manuel S. Barbeito, Richard H. Kruse, 1997, JABSA, 2(3): 7-19.
• A History of ABSA Part II: Safety Conferences 1966 - 1977—Richard H. Kruse, Manuel S. Barbeito, 1997, JABSA 2(4): 10-25.
• A History of ABSA Part III: Safety Conferences 1978 - 1987—Richard H. Kruse, Manuel S. Barbeito, 1997, JABSA 3(1): 11-25.

Publications

• Applied Biosafety: Journal of the American Biological Safety Association (JABSA) link

Past Presidents

Related Terms

• Biological safety, biosafety, biosecurity
• Biotechnology
• Biological warfare
• Biocontainment, Biological containment, Biological Containment
• Containment laboratory
• Biosafety cabinet, Biosafety suites
• Biosafety level links ABSA
• Animal biosafety, Veterinary biosafety
• Bacillus atrophaeus links ABSA

External links

• Official Web Site
• Certified Biological Safety Professional (CBSP) credential
• Registered Biosafety Professional (RBP) credential
• Applied Biosafety: Journal of the American Biological Safety Association (JABSA)
• Center for Disease Control and Prevention Biosafety
• World Health Organization Biosafety
• European Biosafety Association (EBSA)
• African Biological Safety Association
• Asia-Pacific Biosafety Association
• International Federation of Biosafety Associations