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Proceedings of the 4th National Symposium on Biosafety
Take-Home Message and Symposium Summary
Dr. Nelson Garnett, OPRR
Dr. Jonathan Richmond, CDC
address informaton hereClosing Comments - Dr. Nelson Garnett
I would like to add my thanks to all of you and everyone who participated in the creation of this symposium. It certainly has been a tremendous learning experience, and OPRR is proud to have been part of this symposium. I want to share with you two lessons that I have learned.
One is the different perspective that I gained from Taylor Bennett's attention to the dictionary. I learned about the name of my own organization and its relationship to occupational safety and the issues that we have discussed. The name, Office for Protection from Research Risks, reflects the concepts of risk assessment and risk reduction quite well.
The other lesson is an increased appreciation for the importance of performance-based standards. I think that performance based outcomes, that we can all agree with, are nicely summarized in the vision statement for this symposium: "Safe and reproducible research, healthy animals, and healthy people". I want to challenge you to take this message home. The secret to success in this business is a self-monitoring, self-correcting, and self-sustaining program.
Closing comments - Dr. Jonathan Richmond
We began 18 months ago with a vision and a mission. We took risks. We invited a lot of people. One of the beauties of the forward planning for this symposium is reflected in the fact that of the 62 speakers, rapporteur, and keynote speakers invited 18 months ago, we only had to substitute three speakers. There was a commitment from the very beginning to join in doing this particular symposium. I personally want to thank each and every one of you for agreeing to participate and following through. But even more importantly, is who came. You came based on the faith that this was going to be a good program, recognizing that many of the speakers were well known; some, not so well known, but relying on the fact that we had a program that would meet your needs.
If you have comments on how we could do better, we certainly would welcome those. But more importantly, if you have suggestions for the future, let us know what areas of biosafety you think should be explored. There have been some suggestions from the podium. There are certainly more issues in occupational health. Some other issues are in communication, management, and containment. So with that, I would like to thank all of you for coming and for sharing in this experience.
Symposium Contents
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Last Modified: 1/2/97
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