Friday, October 21, 2011

Ban sweeping the floor in the lab

Sweeping the lab with a broom is not a good idea because fine dust particle will linger in the air and settle onto benches and equipments. In addition, if the sweep happens at the same time when someone in the lab is plating/inoculating bacterial culture, chances of contamination is increased.
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Apart from fine dust particle, the floor is rich with microbes and light-weight spores.
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Fungi contamination is very likely if we are preparing solution, culture, or other work on the bench.
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Also, dust particle will travel into machines or lab equipments having ventilation system, and will clog the fan rendering the ventilation less efficient. An inspection on electrophoresis power pack (or computers) will prove my point.
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Normally, lab cleaning is done by cleaners. They are given the tools by management and what they use is thus dictated by management.
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If their client, e.g. researchers or principal investigators (PIs) starts giving feedback about the improper use of broom, it will be possible to move the management of cleaning crew to invest in other alternatives, e.g. electrostatic cloth or material on a mop/sweeper.
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Other problem associated with disturbed fine particle (includes spores) on the floor that lingers in the air would be mold formation in the air ventilation and conditioning unit.
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Without proper filters and frequent maintenance, air quality in confined places such as laboratory will deteriorate. In humid places, it exacerbate this condition.
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Inexplicable sneezes only while in the lab would indicate allergy to the air in our work place.
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In regular office, laying the floor with carpet would minimize disturbing dirt/dust particle on the floor. However, carpets in a laboratory is not safe as spilt media would attract colonies of microbes. Such spill is difficult to clean.
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The use of vacuum cleaner is proper only when the exhaust is sufficiently filtered (or washed as in the liquid-containing vacuum cleaner) because the strong jet of exhaust will release fine particle into the air quicker than the act of sweeping.
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All in all, we should try to minimize disturbing dirt on the floor, especially in laboratory dealing with sensitive material such as microarray chip printing.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Pipette man has carpal turner syndrome...

Have you ever experience a pipette man turn creaky on you? I had. The "piston" just wouldn't slide smoothly and sometimes got stuck. This is really irritating especially when you required delicate pipetting to prevent removing pellet or damage zebrafish embryos.

A lubricant is needed, whereas I, a mocha.