Editing Biosecurity (section)

===Laboratory biosafety and intentional harm===
{{main|Bioterrorism|Laboratory biosafety|Biological weapons}}

The definition has sometimes been broadened to embrace other concepts, and it is used for different purposes in different contexts. It can be defined as the "successful minimising of the risks that the biological sciences will be deliberately or accidentally misused in a way which causes harm for humans, animals, plants or the environment, including through awareness and understanding of the risks".<ref name="handbook">{{cite book|url=https://www.bradford.ac.uk/bioethics/Handbook_complete-draft.pdf|title= Biological Security Education Handbook: The Power of Team-Based Learning|first=Tatyana| last=Novossiolova |isbn=978-1-85143-278-3|date=January 2016|publisher=Bradford Disarmament Research Centre|access-date=22 May 2020}}</ref>

From the late 1990s, in response to the threat of [[biological terrorism]], the term started to include the prevention of the theft of biological materials from [[research laboratories]], called "laboratory biosecurity" by WHO.<ref name="koblentz2010" /> The term [[laboratory biosafety]] refers to the measures taken "to reduce the risk of accidental release of or exposure to infectious disease agents", whereas laboratory biosecurity is usually taken to mean "a set of systems and practices employed in legitimate bioscience facilities to reduce the risk that dangerous biological agents will be stolen and used maliciously".<ref name="labbio" /> Joseph Kanabrocki (2017) source elaborates: "Biosafety focuses on protection of the researcher, their contacts and the environment via accidental release of a pathogen from containment, whether by direct release into the environment or by a laboratory-acquired infection. Conversely, biosecurity focuses on controlling access to pathogens of consequence and on the reliability of the scientists granted this access (thereby reducing the threat of an intentional release of a pathogen) and/or access to sensitive information related to a pathogen's virulence, host-range, transmissibility, resistance to medical countermeasures, and environmental stability, among other things".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sites.nationalacademies.org/cs/groups/pgasite/documents/webpage/pga_176433.pdf|title=Biosafety and Biosecurity in the Realm of Dual-Use Research of Concern|first=Joseph|last= Kanabrocki|date=20 January 2017|page=2|access-date=23 May 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title=Dual Use Research of Concern in the Life Sciences: Current Issues and Controversies|chapter=3. Managing Dual Use Research of Concern | via=NCBI Bookshelf|publisher=National Academies Press |place=Washington DC|author=National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine| date=14 September 2017|isbn =978-0-309-45888-7 | doi= 10.17226/24761 | pmid=29001489| url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK458500/ | access-date=23 May 2020}} [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK458491/pdf/Bookshelf_NBK458491.pdf PDF]</ref>

In the US, the National Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity was created in 2004 to provide biosecurity oversight of "[[Dual-use technology|dual-use research]]", defined as "biological research with legitimate scientific purpose that may be misused to pose a biological threat to [[public health]] and/or [[national security]]". In 2006, the [[National Academy of Sciences]] defined biosecurity as "security against the inadvertent, inappropriate, or intentional malicious or malevolent use of potentially dangerous biological agents or [[biotechnology]], including the development, production, stockpiling, or use of biological weapons as well as outbreaks of newly emergent and epidemic disease".<ref name="koblentz2010" />

A number of nations have developed [[biological agent|biological weapons]] for military use, and many civilian research projects in medicine have the potential to be used in military applications (dual-use research), so biosecurity [[protocol (science)|protocol]]s are used to prevent dangerous biological materials from falling into the hands of malevolent parties.<ref name="koblentz2010" />