What if a delivery person dropped a package containing one of the agents outside on the loading dock at the facility?
It is highly unlikely that such an accident would pose a risk to anyone, even to the delivery person. The United Nations regulates shipment of biological agents and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other agencies set forth strict rules for labs that handle infectious agents. Also, people authorized to ship infectious agents must be trained and certified every two years. Before any infectious agent can be shipped, it must be suspended in liquid, packed in a break-resistant freezer vial and placed inside another container filled with dry ice. When an agent is liquid or frozen, it cannot become airborne. Even if an agent did enter the air, the amounts of agents used in the lab are so small that they would immediately dilute to a level too weak to infect anyone.
