Health and Safety

The aim of Health and Safety (H&S) programs is to provide guidance and set up guidelines to promote health, workplace safety, and environmental protection in animal research programs. Important parts of H&S are development of safety programs, systems, procedures, and adequate training, based on the risk associated with each hazard. H&S is a right and responsibility of each individual in the organization. Individual and organizational attitudes regarding safety will influence all aspects of safe practice, including willingness to report concerns, response to incidents, and communication of risk. Each country has its own Regulations or code of practice related to H&S, so in this chapter we discuss some main concepts that would help the animal facility director, manager, or H&S officer to develop and monitor the H&S program, with in-depth details on Laboratory Animals Allergy development and monitoring.