Past events & courses

The day will be dedicated to large scale contained use. This will be illustrated by sharing how the site has managed the Polio certification in an eradication period. 

Biological agents can indeed be present in many sectors, not just in laboratories. Biosafety officers and occupational hygienists offer complementary perspectives on biological risks in the workplace.What are their approaches? What tools do they use? What can we learn from each other?Join us at the seminar on December 6, 2024, jointly organized by the BBP (Belgian Biosafety Professionals) and BSOH (Belgian Society of Occupational Hygiene), to learn more. This unique event will be an opportunity to explore how these two complementary approaches can be integrated to better prevent and manage risks related to biological agents in professional environments.

One of the requirements of the 'contained use' legislation is the use of validated methods for inactivation of these GMOs and pathogens, the decontamination of work tables, etc. This is where the biocidal products regulation (BPR) comes in. However, for certain applications (e.g. inactivation of parasites, disinfection of water baths to heat up laboratory reagents), there are currently no authorised biocidal products available on the market.  

During this workshop you will first get an introduction on the topic ‘commissioning and decommissioning’. In the afternoon there will be plenty of opportunity to share your experiences during our round table discussion. Focus will be on BSL2 facilities. To end the day, you will get an insight into the ITM’s history and get a tour at this unique location. 

During this morning online webinar both fundamentals as implementation of access benefit sharing (ABS) and dual use regulation will be discussed by our speakers:

During this workshop the updated BBP Movement Guidance document will be presented:

During this morning online webinar different “out of the ordinary” biosafety topics will be discussed, including working with Algae (by Pascale Van Rooij, Perseus), the arthropod containment level (by Marco Brustolin, ITM Antwerp) and bacteriophages (by Katia Pauwels, SBB/Sciensano).

The Sars-CoV2 pandemic made it impossible to organize physical meetings, however BBP never stopped working. During this morning webinar we want to give BBP and EBSA members an opportunity to get a “view behind the scenes” of our organization.

In the footsteps of our previous joint meeting in 2017, BSOH and BBP again joined forces to organize an event. This year, we will focus on where and how the occupational hygienist and the biosafety coordinator can collaborate. By means of practical cases, the roles of both functions and the opportunities for collaboration will be highlighted.