Reducing the Occurrence of Laboratory Health Safety Hazards

Reducing the frequency of laboratory safety hazards can be achieved by following four steps: hazard assessment, planning, removing the hazards, and safety verification. The first phase, hazard assessment, involves investigating the form of a safety hazard, whether biological, chemical, or allergen. Proper assessment will help ensure proper methods are used to remove the hazards for the safety of lab personnel.

The next step is planning, including the safety measures to be taken, the materials needed, and so on, while following the Hierarchy of Controls framework. The Hierarchy of Controls ranks the total elimination of the hazard as the most effective method of preventing lab safety hazards and using personal protective equipment (PPE) as the least effective. All of these should be considered during planning to pick the most effective and practicable method in particular cases.

After making proper plans, the safety hazards can be removed. Biological hazards like microbial contamination can be removed by using different methods of sterilization and disinfection, including heating, irradiation, and using chemicals as appropriate. Chemical hazards may be addressed by cleaning and deactivation with other chemical agents. Dangers posed by the presence of allergens in the laboratory area can be reduced by proper ventilation, regular cleaning, using dedicated work areas for potential allergens, and the use of personal protective equipment.

Finally, verification of the hazard removal measures must be done. For instance, to verify that a laboratory is free from biological hazards in the form of microbial contaminants, surface swab tests can be done on lab surfaces and equipment to show that the area has been successfully decontaminated.

University Research Studies Suggest Best Masks Against Infection

In 2020, at the onset of the pandemic, Duke University researchers sought to find the masks that best protected wearers from contracting the infection. The researchers found that the fitted N95 and three-layer surgical masks sat as the top two.

In general, masks work – even cloth masks provide some protection. According to the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, if 95 percent of the people wore masks within six feet of each other, it would have reduced COVID-19 transmission by 30 percent, reducing the spread of the virus overall.

However, Duke University researchers found in an August 2020 study that the fitted N95 masks healthcare workers wore delivered the most effective protection against the infection. The study used a cardboard box with a lens, a laser, and a phone camera to track the movement of particles released after a person stated a phrase with and without a mask.

In addition, the study evaluated each mask 10 times. The N95 came in first, followed by the three-layered surgical mask. The cotton-polypropylene-cotton mask, the two-layer polypropylene apron mask, and the two-layer cotton, pleated style mask came in third, fourth, and fifth place, respectively, in the Duke University study.

Precautions to Note When Working in the Morgue

Scimedico LLC is a mission-driven company prioritizing a safe, hygienic, functional work environment to ensure quality patient care. Scimedico LLC also provides temporary morgue solutions.

Due to the nature of operations carried out in a morgue, morgue workers are prone to come in contact with different types of harmful bacteria or viruses. Therefore, there are basic morgue precautions that one must observe.

One of the most important precautions in the morgue is your clothing. You should wear disposable clothes and double gloves before entering the morgue. You must also wear a face mask, cap, or eye protection. All of these protect your body from coming in contact with body fluids or blood.

It is important to think of every surface in the morgue as contaminated. Therefore, you should disinfect every working surface and instrument after every operation. You should wash the floor, walls, and machines with hot soapy water and disinfectants.

You should not wear any jewelry to the morgue or the embalming room. This is important because they might also get contaminated.

Is Preventive Maintenance Necessary?

Reliability Centered Maintenance has changed the way we think about Preventive Maintenance (PM). It has caused some to question whether it is even necessary to do preventive maintenance. The truth is most manufacturing facilities would benefit from a good preventive maintenance program. It would be especially beneficial for those plants that rely on breakdown or run-to-failure maintenance. But, a preventive maintenance program is potentially risky, so it must be administered and performed properly to be successful. This paper will examine both the benefits and risks of preventive maintenance and offer some ideas on how to make it successful. We will start with a definition of preventive maintenance.

Preventive maintenance is planned maintenance of plant and equipment that is designed to improve equipment life and avoid any unplanned maintenance activity. PM includes painting, lubrication, cleaning, adjusting, and minor component replacement to extend the life of equipment and facilities. Its purpose is to minimize breakdowns and excessive depreciation. Neither equipment nor facilities should be allowed to go to the breaking point.

The amount of preventive maintenance needed at a facility varies greatly. It can range from a walk through inspection of facilities and equipment noting deficiencies for later correction up to computers that actually shut down equipment after a certain number of hours or a certain number of units produced, etc.

 There are many advantages for having a good preventive maintenance program. The advantages apply to every kind and size of plant. The law of PM programs is that the higher the value of plant assets and equipment per square foot of plant, the greater will be the return on a PM program. For instance, downtime in an automobile plant assembly line at one time cost $10,000 per minute. Relating this to lost production time an automobile manufacturer reported that the establishment of a PM program in their 16 assembly plants reduced downtime from 300 hours per year to 25 hours per year. With results such as this no well-managed plant can afford not to develop a PM program.

As mentioned in the beginning of this report, preventive maintenance does involve risk. The risk here refers to the potential for creating defects of various types while performing the PM task. In other words, human errors committed during the PM task and infant mortality of newly installed components eventually lead to additional failures of the equipment on which the PM was performed. Frequently, these failures occur very soon after the PM is performed. Typically, the following errors or damage occur during PM’s and other types of maintenance outages.

The key to a successful Preventive Maintenance (PM) program is scheduling and execution. Scheduling should be automated to the maximum extent possible. Priority should be given to preventive maintenance and a very aggressive program to monitor the schedule and ensure that the work is completed according to the schedule should be in place.

In addition to explaining the importance of a good preventive maintenance program and the benefits that can be derived from it, training is probably the most effective motivational tool available to the maintenance supervisor. Maintenance and training professionals have estimated that a company should spend $1200 per year for the training of supervisors and $1000 per year for each craftsperson. In fact, due to advances in technology, if the company has not provided any training for craftspeople in the past 18 months, their skills have become dated.

 It is possible to have a successful preventive maintenance program. From a cost reduction viewpoint it is essential, but it does entail risk. When the proper care is taken, the risks, however, can be minimized. In order to minimize risk, preventive maintenance has to be carefully planned and carried out by well-trained and motivated workers. The biggest benefits of a PM program occur through painting, lubrication, cleaning and adjusting, and minor component replacement to extend the life of equipment and facilities.