This report offers guidance and recommends biosafety practices specifically for human and animal clinical diagnostic laboratories and is intended to supplement the 5th edition of Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL-5), developed by CDC and the National Institutes of Health. This document was written not to replace existing biosafety guidelines, but to
1) improve the safety of activities in clinical diagnostic laboratories,
2) encourage laboratory workers to think about safety issues they might not previously have considered or addressed, and
3) encourage laboratorians to create and foster a culture of safety in their laboratories.

Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL) has served as the cornerstone of biosafety practice in the United States since its initial release. We wish to emphasize that the sixth edition of BMBL remains an advisory document recommending best practices for the safe conduct of work in biomedical and clinical laboratories from a biosafety perspective.