MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law on biological safety in the Russian Federation. The document was published on Wednesday on the official web portal of legal information.
The law establishes the foundation for state control and basic principles in the sphere of ensuring the biological safety of the Russian Federation as well as defines a set of measures "directed at protection of residents and environment from the influence of dangerous biological factors, at prevention of biological threats (hazards), creation and development of a monitoring system of biological risks."
For instance, the document establishes the right of citizens for protection of health and environment against dangerous biological factors, for obtaining from government agencies as well as from relevant organizations "information on protection of population and environment from the influence of dangerous biological factors, on measures taken directed at such a protection, at prevention of biological threats." At the same time the citizens will be obligated "not to perform actions leading to violations of rights of other citizens for protection of health and environment from dangerous biological factors." The law obligates organizations to notify the relevant government agency on implemented research studies in the sphere of biological safety. The notification procedure will be established by the government of the Russian Federation.
As Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Agriculture and Food Policy and Environmental Management Alexei Mayorov emphasized earlier, this law is particularly important in the conditions of the pandemic. According to the senator, the initiative regulates the issues that cannot be a part of an industry-specific legislation due to their comprehensive nature, including protection of health and sanitary-epidemiological wellbeing of the population, protection of animals and plants, protection of the environment.
The document also establishes methods of fighting the spread of infectious and parasitic diseases. In order to prevent such diseases it is proposed to study the properties of agents of the diseases that are new, rare, or previously not encountered in the territory of the Russian Federation. Additionally, it is proposed to develop and implement means and methods of indication and identification of pathogens as well as implement measures directed at prevention of hotspots of such diseases.
The document prescribes the notion of "biological safety" which is defined as a "state of security of the population and the environment from the influence of dangerous biological factors when an acceptable level of biological risk is ensured." It is also proposed to prescribe the terms "dangerous biological factor," "biological protection," "strain," "infection (infectious disease) related to provision of medical aid," "immunodeficiency," "biological threat" and "plan of reaction to biological threats" established by the Cabinet of Ministers. Additionally, the document includes the list of main biological threats.