Recently having a CAP inspection, I contacted Maureen Doran with the NSH
Health and Safety Committee and I quote from one of the references she
sent: "Ethyl alcohol and isopropyl alcohol...are rapidly bactericidal,
rather than bacteriostatic, against vegetative forms of bacteria; they are also
tuberculocidal, fungicidal, and virucidal but do not destroy bacterial
spores. Their cidal activity drops sharply when diluted below 50%
concentration, and the optimum bactericidal concentration is in the range of 60%
to 90% by volume."
Standard sterile alcohol prep pads contain 70% isopropanol. I
would suggest using this concentration of ethyl or isopropyl alcohol as the
CAP suggests and follow with 95-100% alcohol to facilitate drying.
Portland, OR
>>> Paula Wilder <histo20@hotmail.com>
07/08/03 10:09AM >>>
Hello everyone!
I was just looking over
the CAP recommendations for routine decontamination
of the cryostat.
It suggests cleaning regularly with 70% alcohol and
decontaminating with a
tuberculoidal disinfectant weekly. We do
approximately 30-50 frozens
weekly. My question - would the 70% alcohol
need to be followed by
acetone to prevent freezing? Does anyone
decontaminate their cryostats
weekly - the older models would require an
excessive amount of work?
We have a Shandon model as a backup which uses
formalin for fumigation, so
that would not pose such a problem. Any help in
this would be greatly
appreciated. Thanks so much!
Paula Wilder
St. Joseph Medical
Center
Towson, MD
21204
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