Biological safety cabinet applications

A unit sometimes confused with a Class I biological safety cabinet is a horizontal laminar flow cabinet or work table. This type of unit serves precisely the opposite function of a class I cabinet. Clean air which has been HEPA filtered is blown across the work surface toward the worker so that the research or product materials are protected against contamination, but the worker is not protected at all. Such a unit is unsuited for microbiological work, except for applications which would cause no harm to the users, such as a work involving noninfectious or non-aUergenic materials. 

Engineered safely equipment is preferred over the reliance on personal protective equipment, and the fume hood is one such engineered safety device that is nearly ubiquitous in laboratories. Laboratories concerned with biological specimens (microbes, spores) also commonly are equipped with biological safety cabinets. The following section provides basic information on the function and application of these devices. The purpose here is not to provide design or installation instructions, since most users will find this equipment already installed in their work spaces. Rather, this information is to allow optimal use to be made of the installation that is preexisting. 

A troublesome problem in any laboratory is the disinfection and/or decontamination of an overt biological spill. A spill poses a smaUer problem if it occurs in a biological safety cabinet, provided it does not splatter to the outside of the cabinet. Direct application of concentrated liquid disinfectant and a thorough... 

Stuart, D.G., R.L. Jones, D. Eagleson, and J.M. Eagleson, Jr. 1984. Practical application of biological safety cabinet performance envelopes. Read before the XXVII Biological Safety Conference, Raleigh, NC. 

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