President Obama on July 2 issued an executive order mandating fundamental changes in the regulation of "select agents," a set of 82 designated pathogens and toxins. According to the White House, HHS and USDA will tier the existing list based upon the risk posed by the pathogen or toxin in enabling a mass casualty incident through deliberate misuse. For those pathogens and toxins in the highest risk tier, HHS and USDA will evaluate options for the targeted application of physical security and personnel reliability measures in a manner regulatory burden on researchers and institutions using lower risk agents.
Comments (0)