A Push To Register Certain Biological Labs In Maryland

Maryland should consider registering and licensing certain biological laboratories that handle deadly pathogens not lethal enough to be considered potential biological weapons, a state workgroup suggested Friday.

Such pathogens include the organisms that cause Legionnaire's disease, tuberculosis and rabies. Although less dangerous than the microbes that cause plague and Ebola, these pathogens are sometimes handled under similarly strict laboratory conditions, known as biocontainment, to prevent their release.

The Maryland Biocontainment Laboratories Oversight Workgroup said it was unable to determine how many private biocontainment labs aren't covered by government safety regulations, but that it's possible some exist. They would be labs that don't receive federal funding, and which work with pathogens or toxins not regulated by the federal government as "select agents."
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