THE EFFICIENCY OF AIR-SHOWERS AS A SAFETY VENTILATION CONCEPT IN THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY

摘要

The present paper describes an investigation of the efficiency of an air-shower installed in anrnairlock between a changing-room and a laboratory-animal zone. The air shower studied is intended tornremove contaminants deposited on the surface of the garments of laboratory personnel, and is one ofrnseveral measures to minimize the exposure of laboratory-animals to particles originating outside thernlaboratory animal zone. The air-shower was also used in a set of measurements conducted in order tornstudy the concept in a pharmaceutical application for protection of laboratory personnel from medicallyrnactive and potentially hazardous substances. Results obtained by optical particle counting showed thatrnthe particle concentration decreased drastically during the first 10-30 seconds after the start of the airshower,rnbut that the concentration decay was negligible after 50 s. Furthermore, experiments based onrnsampling of a test substance showed that between 1% and 20% of the substance remained on therngarments after showering, depending on the procedure used when applying the substance on the surfacernof the garments. The amount of the test substance released when undressing air-showered garments wasrnabout 0.5% of that for non-showered garments.