Learn about the various types of biological hazards, their risk group classifications, and how to take proactive measures in biohazard risk management using a mobile app.
Also referred to as biohazards, biological hazards come from any biological substances that pose risks or threats to the health of living organisms (mostly humans and animals). In the workplace, some employees are exposed to a great amount of biological agents. This highlights the employers’ responsibility to help educate workers about the various types of biological hazards, the risks associated with them, and how to proactively manage exposure through comprehensive risk assessment and management.
As one of the most common workplace hazards, biological hazards have the potential to harm and infect employees, most especially those who are directly exposed to them.
While most biohazards often come from bacteria, viruses, parasites, and molds or fungi, they are further grouped into 4 major types or categories, as discussed by Assurity Consulting:
Some biological hazard examples under this classification include bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi (such as yeasts and molds). These are commonly considered harmless if kept under control, while some may cause serious risks and diseases to animal or humans like the COVID-19 virus.
These refer to a group of substances with a biological origin that are toxic and poisonous to humans. Often, biotoxins are produced by plants, bacteria, insects, or certain animals, among others. Continuous exposure to these may cause, at the very least, a series of inflammatory reactions throughout the body.
While blood isn’t considered a biological hazard, it can still bring potential risks if it’s contaminated or its source is in any way infected. Also, blood products such as red blood cells, white blood cells, plasma, tissues, and platelets are also hazardous if not properly handled.
Generally, these refer to plants, soil, or water that potentially contain the first two types of biological hazards—biological agents and biotoxins.
Risk Group 1 (low to no individual or community risk) – Biological agents or organisms that are unlikely to cause diseases to healthy humans or animals
Risk Group 2 (moderate individual risk, low community risk) – Pathogens that are likely to cause diseases to humans or animals but have minimal potential to be serious hazards to the workers, community, or the environment
Risk Group 3 (high individual risk, low community risk) – Pathogens causing serious diseases to humans or animals that don’t typically spread from one infected individual to another, for which preventive and treatment measures may be present
Risk Group 4 (high individual and community risk) – Pathogens causing serious diseases to humans or animals that are directly or indirectly transmissible and for which preventive and treatment measures may not be available
Risk Group Classification of Biological Agents
In the workplace context, note that the system of classifying biological agents based on their risks considers the following factors:
The state or level of the agent’s or organism’s ability to produce a disease
The agent or organism is considered to be a hazard to workers
The likelihood for the agent to be transmitted to the community
The availability of proven preventive measures and treatment
The key to establishing an effective process of mitigating biohazard risks is being proactive in your systems and implementing the practice of safety culture in your organization.
Fortunately, innovative EHS software and mobile app solutions like Mitti (by SafetyCulture) help employers and workers alike in taking action toward safety and quality in the workplace. Using Mitti (by SafetyCulture)’s smart features, be empowered to do the following and more:
Conduct workplace biohazard inspections, risk assessment, and risk management of tasks and activities using digital checklists, templates, and forms
Generate reports from inspections and get access to rich insights and data that you can use for further reinforcement and continuous improvement of systems
Capture biosafety issues that may arise during work and record necessary evidences or documents to provide ample context
Implement necessary controls and precautionary measures to combat the various types of biological hazards by assigning actions to respective team members or Persons-in-Charge (PICs) and building workflows to streamline processes
Introduce, disseminate, and enforce up-to-date Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) across departments about the guidelines on installing safety symbols, biological hazard identification, and risk classification using the Heads Up feature
Make employee training easy with Mitti (by SafetyCulture)’s Training feature in deploying engaging mobile courses on biohazard safety, workplace safety, and hazard communication, among others
Make sense of the big picture of your inspections data and workplace safety insights by connecting your other Business Intelligence (BI) tools to Mitti (by SafetyCulture) using the Integrations feature
Check out these ready-to-use biohazard inspection checklists and templates you can download and customize for free:
