P3 Lab

The P3 laboratory is a biosafety protection level 3 laboratory, and the abbreviation P is the abbreviation of English protection. The whole laboratory is completely sealed, and the room is under negative pressure, so that the gas inside the laboratory will not leak to the outside and cause pollution.

According to the equipment and technical conditions, the biological laboratory is also divided into 4 levels (generally called P1 P2 P3 P4 laboratories), with Level 1 being the lowest and Level 4 being the highest. The laboratory is suitable for pathogenic microorganisms or their toxins that infect people with serious or even fatal diseases mainly through the respiratory route; such as SARS virus, Bacillus anthracis, Yersinia pestis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, rabies virus and other highly pathogenic viruses .

The significance of P3 laboratory in virus research:

1) Effectively protect the environment from pollution and ensure the safety of people's lives

2) Effectively protect the operator from infection

3) Effectively protect pathogen samples from contamination

What is special about the P3 level biological laboratory:

The P3 laboratory is also the national third-level security protection laboratory. It emphasizes the protection of viruses. Unlike ordinary laboratories, it is strictly guarded and has multiple checkpoints. Everyone who enters and exits must be fully armed, because the P3 experiment In the laboratory, pathogenic microorganisms or their toxins are often studied. In addition to H7N9, there are also well-known HIV and AIDS. The entire laboratory is completely sealed, and the room is under negative pressure, so that the gas inside the laboratory will not escape to the outside and cause pollution. In addition, there is a very strict process for entering P3, which requires passing a medical examination, vaccination, and relevant technical knowledge examinations before obtaining a license.

 The establishment of a biosafety level 3 laboratory must meet three conditions:

One is to have strict laboratory operations and technical procedures: laboratory personnel are required to be professionally trained in handling pathogenic and potentially lethal pathogens, and qualified scientific workers with experience in pathogen work are required. Supervision. Laboratory personnel must wear isolation clothing when working, and all steps related to operations such as biological pathogens should be carried out in biological safety cabinets or other biological containment devices.

The second is to install a primary barrier: the so-called primary barrier mainly refers to safety equipment, including a series of biological safety cabinets, various airtight containers and other engineering control facilities designed to eliminate or reduce exposure to harmful biological materials.

The third is that the laboratory building design should meet the standards of secondary barriers: it is mainly used to prevent infectious microorganisms from escaping into the environment, and to avoid exposure of staff and the environment in adjacent areas to possible infectious aerosols.

Four main points of P3 laboratory pollution source control:

Negative pressure airtightness: The laboratory is in a completely airtight environment, and the ambient air pressure must be kept at a negative pressure of 40Pa~60Pa, and the incoming air cannot flow back.

High-efficiency air filtration: The air entering the laboratory is completely filtered, and the exhaust air must also be sterilized and filtered to ensure cleanliness.

Strict disinfection: Personnel entering the P3 laboratory must comply with strict disinfection procedures: staff must be disinfected before entering the laboratory, and must wear isolation protective clothing and protective equipment such as eye shields, masks, and gloves. Personnel must be disinfected and changed before leaving. The waste generated in the laboratory and work protective clothing cannot be taken out. It needs to be disinfected through the logistics channel, and then enters the autoclave through the transfer window. After the disinfection is qualified, the next step of garbage disposal can be carried out.

Biological safety cabinet: such as all experimental operations must be carried out in a biological safety cabinet, which means that the SARS virus or samples will not leave the biological safety cabinet. Animal experiments were also carried out in negative pressure animal experiment cabinets.

Site selection of P3 laboratory: The P3 biosafety protection laboratory can be located in a building with other purpose buildings, but it must form its own area. The area is separated from public corridors or public areas by a partition door.

A. The core area of the third-level biosafety protection laboratory includes the experimental room and the buffer room connected to it.

B. The buffer chamber forms a channel into the experimental chamber. Two interlocking doors must be set up, and when one of the doors is opened, the other door is automatically closed. If an electric interlock is used, both doors must be openable when the power is cut off. A second change of clothes is possible in the buffer room.

C. When the ventilation system of the laboratory is not equipped with an automatic control device, the area of the buffer room should not be too large, and should not exceed one-eighth of the area of the experimental room.

D. The installation location of Class II or Class III biological safety cabinets should be far away from the entrance of the experimental room, avoid areas where staff frequently walk, and is conducive to the formation of airflow patterns that flow from the "clean" area to the "contaminated" area.