Federal Acts

Basis for appointing the SECB

• Art. 29g of the Federal Act on the Protection of the Environment (Environmental Protection Act, EPA)
• Art. 29e of the Epidemics Act (EpidA) (in German)
• Art. 22 of the Federal Act on Non-Human Gene Technology (Gene Technology Act, GTA) (in German)

Federal Ordinances

Regulating the tasks and organisation of the SECB

• Federal Ordinance on the Swiss Expert Committee for Biosafety (in German), in force since 1 January 1997
  Not legally binding English translation (rtf, 80 KB)
  English is not an official language of the Swiss Confederation. This translation is provided for information purposes only and has no legal force.

Putting the tasks of the SECB into more concrete terms

• Ordinance on the Contained Use of Organisms (Containment Ordinance, ContainO) (in German), in force since 1 November 1999
  Not legally binding English translation
  English is not an official language of the Swiss Confederation. This translation is provided for information purposes only and has no legal force.
• Ordinance on the Handling of Organisms in the Environment (Release Ordinance, RO) in force since 1 November 1999
• Ordinance on Protection of Employees from Dangerous Microorganisms (PEMO) (in German), in force since 1 November 1999
• Ordinance on Protection against Major Accidents (Major Accidents Ordinance, MAO), in force since April 1999

Guidelines

Guidelines are designed to clarify indeterminate legal concepts so as to allow for consistent enforcement. In particular, the Containment Ordinance and the Release Ordinance provide for the issue of such guidelines with regard to risk assessments, safety measures and quality assurance. These guidelines are published by FOEN.