HEPA VS. ULPA IN A CLEANROOM 1. This large circle represents the cross section of a human hair, with an average visible diameter of 75μm. 2. This smaller circle, still visible to the human eye, represents a 50μm diameter particle. 3. This represents a 0.3μm diameter particle. HEPA filters remove over 99.97% 4. This represents [Read More…]
Almost two years ago, we wrote a short article on the FDA regulation of a nascent industry, one that has the FDA sounding the alarm regarding contamination from carcinogens and the vaporizing of metal nanoparticles. Despite our concerns – and those of the FDA – this industry is still around, growing, and has set its [Read More…]
In the Worlds Fair Exposition of 1893, one young entrepreneur, Clark Stanley, stood before an excited crowd of onlookers and plunged his hand into a sack of live rattlesnakes. Pulling out an unfortunate herpetological victim, he sliced it open and, in a technique that was about as far from aseptic processing and devoid of microbial [Read More…]
Introduction Pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing personnel must cope with endotoxins – a contamination source unique to their industries. Endotoxins, also known as pyrogens, originate from dead (!) gram negative bacteria. When this strain of bacteria are killed by antibacterial reagents (say phenolic or quaternary ammonium compounds), radiation, steam sterilization, etc. the cell wall detritus [Read More…]
Reproduction used to be simple. Boy meets girl. Egg meets sperm. Nine months, one baby shower, and a whole lot of trips to Buy Buy Baby later, a new addition arrives to much billing and cooing by the proud grandparents. Oh those halcyon days. Today, the landscape is so much more nuanced as advances in [Read More…]
We have a riddle for you: what is both ancient and futuristic, biodegradable and naturally sustainable, is delicately engineered in a cleanroom with a tensile strength five times that of steel, is a simple formulation but has applications in materials science, medicine, and reforestation? Need some more clues? It is edible, reintegrating into the human [Read More…]
Update: Now also featured on Cleanroom Technology According to science writer Mary Roach in her eye-opening and entertaining book Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, early anatomists had an almost child-like curiosity with the inner workings of the human body. Engaging with it as cartographers of an unexplored continent they staked their claims to its [Read More…]
Disinfection of Surfaces with Hydrogen Peroxide Of all the contamination control activities in a cleanroom, perhaps the most critical are disinfection procedures. That’s because human health depends on the quality and thoroughness of a surface disinfection wipedown. Many solutions can be considered for surface disinfection, but hydrogen peroxide and sodium hypochlorite (bleach) rate special attention. [Read More…]
A previous article in this series discussed disinfection of surfaces with hydrogen peroxide. We turn our attention now to bleach as another very effective treatment agent. Most people understand that ordinary household bleach – a 5.5% solution of sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) in water – is a strong disinfecting agent. In neutral or slightly acidic solutions the active [Read More…]
In his frequently hilarious and always engaging 2006 travelogue, Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu, memoirist J. Maarten Troost describes his multi-year sojourn in a culture that kicks back after a long day’s spear fishing in the Pacific island sun with a rather unique herbal beverage. Think of [Read More…]
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