Volume 6: Human Health, 1989-96
8. Development of guidance on occupational risks from BSE and other TSEs
1994
The CDTFZ & BSE meetings cease

The CDTFZ & BSE meetings cease

8.131 In December 1994 (following publication of ACDP's guidance 'Precautions for work with human and animal Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies' in July 1994 - see below), Mr North minuted Mr Lister about the 'Possible need to update guidance on prudent precautions against BSE'. He attached an Environmental Health Briefing dated 3 October 1994, noting that this seemed to imply that BSE was a TSE in Hazard Group 1 and that 'measures to limit exposure should be taken when working with lymphoid or neural tissue'. He said:

That advice seems to be expanded in the following paragraph to indicate the need to wear eye protection and swab down surfaces with sodium hypochlorite etc. Apparently Birmingham EHOs have asked whether this advice should be given to slaughterhouses where people work with such lymphoid tissue after removal from the carcass. The advice goes further than that which we had issued to the industry through the attached British Meat Manufacturers Association Guidance Note No 5 (also issued as an NIG minute) and which we cleared through the BSE Zoonosis Working Group. The reference to the 'suitable protective equipment' in that it is not meant to imply the need for anything special over and above what would normally be worn in a slaughterhouse - and this would not extend to eye protection, the use of knives could not be avoided, and disinfectant would not be used.

I wonder if you could give a view as to the classification of such prohibited material rising in slaughterhouses (is that Hazard Group 1?) and should the guidance we have given to industry now be updated to refer to this more stringent standard of basic protective measures . . . ¹

8.132 We did not see any response to this minute.