MODERN CLEANROOM CLOTHING SYSTEMS; NEW DATA ON PEOPLE AS CONTAMINATION SOURCE IN CLEAN ROOMS WITH REGARD TO AIRBORNE PARTICULATES

摘要

Today clothing and clothing systems for cleanrooms are mainly tested with regard to material properties, such as particle generation, particle filtration and resistance to wear. The dispersal chamber or "body-box" has been used for studying the protective efficacy of clothing systems in use, for example by Hoborn in 1981 and Whyte and Bailey in 1985. A modified dispersal chamber has been installed at KTH. Tests and comparative studies have been performed in the dispersal chamber on selected clothing systems. The new data include results from the latest tests, which have been performed in two parts. Part 1, where each person performed 12 sequences dressed in new, modern cleanroom clothing systems with small variations, such as with and without goggles, different face masks, and different sizes of hoods. In part 2 each person performed six test sequences with new, modern cleanroom clothing systems with variations in fabrics and as a comparison two sequences with pharmaceutical clothing system and surgical clothing system respectively. The results are given in total number of airborne particles (≥ 0.5μm per cubic meter) and airborne aerobic CFU per cubic meter. Statistical evaluations of the results have been performed. The source strengths of the contamination source people wearing modern cleanroom clothing systems have been estimated.