Share thisCost and process improvement within biocontainment space
Rapid growth of biocontainment environments is all around us.We are constantly learning more and more about containment initiatives, facility design, appropriate materials, and evolving operating procedures to help minimize the risk of a breech of containment. With that stated, there are associated costs which continually increase as the economy changes. In an effort to minimize risk and reduce increased costs in renovations of existing and new biosafety labs, let?s take a closer look into isolation technology.
Isolation technology in a bio-safety lab:
- As laboratory plans become more "comprehensive," adding new technologies and core services, there will be more sharing of space between multiple user groups working with multiple agents.
- The challenges facing the designer are: "Mitigating the contamination risks to the protect personnel, the environment, and the science "Maintaining the highest possible productivity "Achieving both of the statements above in a cost effective manner
- Contamination is difficult to detect and to diagnose. It is often well after the fact that a problem is detected. The cost of the investigation and the facility shut-down must be taken into consideration. Anticipation and prevention are key elements for safety and reliability.
This article will discuss isolator techniques and highlight their key benefits: cost and process improvement within biocontainment space.
Continuity of Containment: A Key Element for Optimized Facility Design and Cost Saving
The use of micro-environments in the medical and pharmaceutical industry has seen a revolution over the last two decades. The concept of minimizing the exposed area and keeping the operator outside of the hazardous zone has significantly changed the way the research and production facilities have been designed.
The containment strategy consists of isolating the hazardous process instead of placing the personnel within the process and relying on personnel protective equipment (PPE) to provide a safe solution - much like reversing the Personal Protection Equipment from the operator onto the machine. Especially when working with high consequence pathogens, the transfer of the role of the containment barrier function from the room to the localized isolation technology has several benefits. Since the hazard is contained within the smaller zone of the isolator, the containment room itself has significantly less risk of exposure and less of a role in the protection in the outside environment. Though still classified a hazardous space, the containment room itself can often be constructed with less performance requirements and simpler materials and methods, resulting in cost savings. Significant savings can be realized if engineering enhancements itself such as effluent decontamination and fumigation processes, necessary to work with high consequence biohazards (that are often expensive to incorporate in the room and facility), can be incorporated into the isolation technology.