Biodiv Sci ›› 2021, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (11): 1530-1538.  DOI: 10.17520/biods.2021234

• Original Papers: Biosecurity and Nature Conservation • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Constructing a biosafety evaluation system based on DPSEEA model: A case study of Shenzhen

Yuanyuan Dong()   

  1. School of Law, People’s Public Security University of China, Beijing 100038
  • Received:2021-06-08 Accepted:2021-09-02 Online:2021-11-20 Published:2021-11-05
  • Contact: Yuanyuan Dong

Abstract:

Aims Because of the connotation and extension of biosafety, the fuzziness of basic elements, the diversity of evaluation indexes and evaluation methods, China has not yet formed a comprehensive and effective biosafety evaluation index system. The purpose of this paper is to construct the biological safety evaluation system and to study the current situation of biological safety.
Methods Firstly, we analyze the characteristics and shortcomings of the concept of “biosafety” in Biosafety Act by using normative analysis method. From the point of view of national security, biosafety refers to the ability and state of the country to effectively prevent and deal with the threat of dangerous biological factors and related factors, and to maintain and safeguard its own security and interests. Clearly the extension of biosafety, that is, only the interests of national security, public health, ecological and environmental protection threats to biological risk, is the object of biosafety regulation. Secondly, the basic elements of biosafety include natural biosafety and socio-economic biosafety. Natural biological safety mainly refers to people’s health and ecological environment protection, including individual biological safety and biodiversity safety. Socio-economic biosafety focuses on national security interests, that is, social stability and national economic interests, including biotechnology safety, biological laboratory safety. Thirdly, taking the basic elements of biosafety as the Yardstick of management, taking national security interests, public health and ecological environment protection as the evaluation subject, taking the concept of biological rule of law as the idea, using the model construction method, based on the DPSEEA (driving force-pressure-state-exposure-effect-action) model, a biosafety evaluation index system with the characteristics of biological rule of law is constructed by combining qualitative index and quantitative index.
Result A set of biological safety evaluation index system with the characteristics of biological rule by law is constructed, including the level of biosafety laws and regulations system, the degree of cracking down on biosafety related crimes, the establishment and perfection of the coordination mechanism among biosafety departments, the number and percentage of biosafety laboratories meeting the prescribed standards, the number and density of biosafety talents, the total amount of official assistance to the biological industry and the basic health sector and other investments, the proportion of target population covered by vaccines, the popularization rate of biosafety publicity and education, and a total of 32 biosafety evaluation indicators.
Conclusion Based on the field investigation and data statistical analysis, the evaluation system was validated by the biological safety work in Shenzhen in 2019 and 2020. The results show that the biological safety work in Shenzhen has achieved remarkable achievements in agricultural biological safety, animal and plant epidemic prevention, and prevention of alien species invasion. However, there are still some deficiencies in laws and regulations system, cultivation of biosafety personnel, investment of funds and biosafety popularization rate. In view of the above problems, this paper puts forward some suggestions, such as perfecting the legal system of biosafety and paying attention to the coordination of laws, realizing the multi-coordinated biocontrol of “One health”, strengthening the talent training and capital investment, and strengthening the propaganda and education of biosafety.

Key words: biosafety, DPSEEA, biological elements, biological rule of law, evaluation index system