Contamination during critical DNA research reminds me of the movie, “The Fly”. Our would be hero decides to carelessly test his new teleportation device without safe guards. A fly enters the telepod with him and the confused computer splices their genes together. The resulting monster is rather horrifying and pathetic.

Nothing so dramatic is likely to happen in real life research; but the story illustrates a point about the importance of clean laboratory equipment. You don’t want to do genetic fingerprinting for a particular antibiotic producing germ and inadvertently introduce genetic material from a whole host of unrelated bacteria left over from a previous experiment. In an effort to prevent such mishaps, scientists at the John Innes Centre (JIC)ensure clean laboratory glassware by having as many as twenty various Lancer glassware washer/dryers working daily.

Accurate results are particularly important when doing the kind of meticulous research DNA usually requires. The research labs at JIC in Norfolk continue to make critical contributions to the development of cancer drugs and antibiotics because of their high standards and integrity of conclusions. Over 800 staff at JIC carryout fundamental, strategic and applied research to understand how plants and microbes work at the molecular, cellular and genetic levels.

They found a new way to measure activity of enzymes called DNA topoisomerases. These help package genetic material into cells. Blocking of these enzymes may be key characteristics in future anti-cancer and anti-bacterial drugs.

In 2006, JIC researchers developed a technique to harvest bacteria from soil that allows them to quickly and accurately create antibiotics that kills it. This not only allows them to fashion more effective antibiotics, but also find ways to fight viruses such as MRSA. None of these important advancements would be possible without lab equipment that was completely disinfected.

Growing Company That Makes A World Of Difference

Lancer manufactures a broad range of glassware washer and dryer models and distributes them worldwide. Their customers include those from general research, petroleum, chemical, medical, and pharmaceutical industries. Customized options are available to meet their customer’s specific needs. Customers can choose from under-counter and freestanding models as well as industry specific ones.

Lancer Industrie SA was founded in 1970 and initially located in Toulouse, France through 1979. It quickly expanded in the 1980s and in 1983 created Lancer UK (United Kingdom). Lancer BV (Holland) launched in 1988 with the first washers for the hospital industry. Lancer Inc. (USA) started in 1989. They were the first to design and manufacture glassware washers specifically for the pharmaceutical market.

Manufacturing facilities continued to expand during the 1990s and its ISO 9002 certification (quality assurance standard) was awarded in 1995. In 2000, there was another big phrase of expansion for the manufacturing facility. It achieved the ISO 9001 version 2000 certification in 2003. Today there are representatives for the company in most every region of the world.

On their website, Lancer (advanced washing & disinfection solutions) has a mission and vision statement focused upon serving their customers as best that is possible. It is this history and record of reliability that JIC laboratories trusts with their professional glassware cleaning responsibilities. For more detailed information on the continued relationship between these two organizations, please click on LaboratoryTalk.

Letters laced with deadly bacteria spores served as a lethal reminder about the threat of bio-terrorism scarcely a month after the shock of 9/11. The anthrax attacks in October of 2001 killed 5 people and infected another 17. The offices of the media and those of the two senators affected had to be cleaned at enormous time and expense. Basically, each building had to be treated twice - once with ClO2 to get rid of the infectious agent and another time with sodium bisulfite to neutralize the chlorine dioxide that kills the anthrax.

Fumigating one building alone cost 27 million dollars. The Brentwood postal facility through which many of the letters passed cost 130 million dollars over 26 months to decontaminate. Surely there must be a better and easier way to disinfect a large area or building when something like this happens. Scientists at Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) in collaboration with Stellar Micro Devices (SMD) based in Austin Texas have developed a combined UV-C/X-ray system that may be cheaper and more convenient for possible future anthrax decontamination.

Consequences Of Doing Nothing

If another bio-terrorism attack occurs, anyone who comes in contact with Bacillus anthracis will need to be treated immediately. About 95% of those exposed tend to contract the cutaneous (infection of the skin) form. This less lethal kind has a high curative rate with early treatment using certain antibiotics. The most effective are ciprofloxacin, doxycycline, and penicillin. If left untreated, cutaneous anthrax has a mortality rate of about 20%.

Inhalation anthrax is usually fatal. It is very difficult to treat and requires hospitalization along with antibiotics. Even with early and comprehensive medical care, known cases suggest a mortality rate of 75%. It is assumed that this would be near 100%, if left untreated.

The less common gastrointestinal anthrax (a digestive tract illness caused by ingesting the spores) kills between 25 and 60% of those infected. The treatment is similar to the other types, yet has a few different symptoms.

Anthrax is not contagious. Those who become ill are exposed directly to large quantities of spores. Usually this is from a deliberate concentration in a powdery form. The fact that it is not contagious is a reason why it was at one time considered an attractive bio-weapon. The contagion will not spread throughout the population and endanger the attacker.

Weaponized anthrax can continue to infect those who come in contact with contaminated buildings and objects, until the spores are eliminated or killed. UV light and X-rays have been known for decades to kill certain germs under threshold conditions. These mechanisms have been used separately for years to help sterilize equipment.

The new research by GTRI and SMD has found that both forms of electromagnetic radiation can kill the anthrax spores when exposed to high enough concentrations. They found that UV-C in particular does a good job of decontaminating exposed surfaces. They also confirmed that X-rays can kill any spores hidden in crevices. Using phosphors to stimulate high efficiency cathodoluminescence, large areas could be irradiated and made safe in as little as 3 hours.

To learn more details about this exciting new development, click on MedicalNewsToday.

Ever since the Tylenol poison scare in the 1980s, companies have looked for new and innovative tamper proof or resistant labels and containers to protect their products. The Badger Tag & Label Corporation has developed an adhesive label that leaves a ‘Void’ imprint on the surface of the product when it is peeled away.

So far, these labels have been primarily used for trailers that indicate load weight. Under most circumstances these tags and labels should rarely, if ever be removed. Removing one leaves evidence behind. Because removal can be relatively easy to identify, void pattern adhesive labels have a wide range of use and application.

Badger can preprint the labels for their customers before delivery. More conveniently, the end user can imprint them with laser, dot-matrix, thermal transfer printing, or handwriting. Although silver and white are standard, such custom labels can be tinted with any color.

Regardless of color, a clearly visible void word pattern is left by the adhesive when somebody tampers with something that has a label attached to it. This expedites the process of identifying these potentially tampered items. Furthermore, creating such specialized tags and labels is effective and versatile.

The simplicity of the idea allows you to substitute the word void for something else, if necessary. The point is that these labels are customizable. The actual word they leave is not important as long as it draws attention to the specific problem - whether it is fiddling, altering, messing around with, or outright tampering. You want to find the item and get it out of inventory or stock as quickly as possible so that your customer will not have to deal with any potential problem.

A Low Tech Solution To A High Tech Problem

Keeping track of inventory that may be handled by lots of people can be a major problem in many industries. Tampered products can have an adverse affect upon a manufacturing company’s reputation and profit line unless these items are identified quickly and easily. Using one of these labels as part of a seal on warranty parts can save a company a lot of money and provide the end user with assurance of product quality or purity.

Tracking and quality assurance is especially important in the electronics, computer, and healthcare industries. It can be equally true for any business that handles sealed containers. Airlines might want quality assurance for meals and beverage carts. Shipping and cargo containers often require seals and attached documentation. Pre-filled medications that you get from your pharmacy sometimes need special labels or seals, especially when it is the over-the-counter or comes through the mail. Sterile packages need labels that should only be removed by the end user.

Whenever there is a warning or information label that should not be taken off during handling, an adhesive pattern one can be attached. If it is gone, then there should be evidence that it once was there. Such use has the potential to lessen liability should something go wrong.

Badger Tag & Label Corporation has been in business since 1935 and is located in Random Lake, Wisconsin. They sell prints on both paper and synthetic stock to customers throughout the U.S. You can purchase them in singles, rolls, sheets, or ganged in whatever quantity you need. Please click ThomasNet for more information.

A pressure transducer is simply another name for a sensor and describes what it does. A new version of this mechanism is calibrated to work with the Kaye Validator, a stand-alone thermal validation system that ensures data compliance with EN554 and ISO-17665 medical equipment sterilization standards. The high performance of the new GE Sensing’s pressure transducer provides accurate measurements of both pressure and humidity throughout the entire temperature range of conventional steam autoclave operation.

It has a pressure range of 0 to 4 bar absolute with an accuracy of 10 mbar between 110 degrees Celsius and 140 degrees Celsius. Pressure calibration performed at 23 degrees Celsius and 121 degrees Celsius is fully substantiated to the ISO-17025 validity standard. The device delivers fast and accurate information about critical parameters during the manufacture or sterilization process.

Its main purpose is to help document compliance with medical sterilization standards through accurate measurements of the harsh environmental conditions necessary during the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and medical devices. These accurate readings are relayed to the Kaye Validator and recorded for quality assurance. The information obtained allows the machine to provide charts, graphs, and comparisons between actual data and projected data. Both devices working together provide improved data management and flexibility in reporting and analysis.

This monitoring instrument was developed by GE Sensing & Inspection Technologies as part of the larger GE Enterprise Solutions. They are innovators in advanced measurement and sensor based technologies that are needed in a wide variety of challenging industrial applications. This manufacturer specializes in sensing equipment that measures temperature, pressure, humidity, and gas flow rate under extreme conditions. Customers include those from oil and gas, power generation, aerospace, transportation, and healthcare industries. GE Sensing operates directly out of 40 facilities in 25 countries and has a worldwide industrial customer base.

The list of technical equipment they have developed is quite impressive. These include radiographic, ultrasonic, remote visual, and eddy current devices that allow testing or monitoring of materials or processes within manufacturing without any kind of disruption or interference.

What This Means For You

A better transducer to help monitor the sterile environment during the manufacture of medical devices ultimately ensures the safety of patients when doctors use these instruments. Risk of secondary infection from the use of these devices is reduced. Better and more complex instruments can be developed without the risk of contamination.

Authentication of the conditions under which these devices are manufactured is provided by the data collected by the sensor during the process. This recording of the parameters provides proof required by governing standards. Click on over to ThomasNet for details.

GE Sensing & Inspection Technologies is involved in a number of upcoming tradeshows throughout the world. One in particular may provide entertainment opportunities while you are there. Fabtech International & AWS Welding Show 2008 will be held in the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV USA on October 6 through 8, 2008. You can lose your shirt in Las Vegas at the gambling tables, so go for the sure thing with GE Sensing instead.

University of Florida engineers have discovered that microwaving kitchen sponges and scrub pads for 2 minutes kills virtually all of the pathogenic organisms infesting them. Upon reading about this, I set out to do an experiment myself. From my experience, it does appear to work as long as the sponge or scrub pad is saturated with water. (Remember, metal cannot be placed in an operating microwave oven.) Simply cleaning these items in a dishwasher is not nearly as effective.

I remember when we first got a microwave oven about 30 years ago. It was a fascinating piece of equipment at the time, especially for a teenage guy who refused to read directions. None of seven children in the family had the slightest idea how to properly operate one, so personal experiments were inevitable. It is a small wonder that we did not use the microwave as a sterilizer on ourselves, let alone ‘nuke’ our food.

With each test, we learned something new. Eventually we learned how to cook potatoes without making them explode. An artificial indoor lightening storm proved that you do not want to put any kind of metal inside while cooking. An instant vaporization of water inside a mug was one of my personal accidents. The loud bang throughout the house was an important science lesson on the nature of super-heating H2O.

Most disturbing were the rumors abounding throughout the neighborhood about live animals placed inside one of these things! I certainly hope this was just gossip and nothing more. We interpreted them as bad attempts at humor. The thought of something like that actually happening is just pure horror!

Today cooking with a microwave oven is just an ordinary, everyday kind of thing to do. We often laugh at the stupidity we displayed in our youth concerning this important kitchen appliance. When I heard about these various objects (including contaminated syringes) being placed inside one for purposes of cleansing, I paid attention.

Home Application

The kitchen microwave is an appliance that more than 90% of all Americans have. Many even have more than one. This idea for a new barrier against food borne illness is a viable one. Most people can easily put this method of decontamination into practice.

Kitchen towels and sponges are the number one way that these pathogens are transmitted from one surface area to another. When they are left out for several days, these objects become cultures for all sorts of the toughest germs. If you zap these little buggers out of existence every other day at their primary source, then they have far less a chance at spreading to your prepared food.

The researchers went another step further to clarify the efficacy of this technique. They saturated their test sponges and scrubbing pads with raw sewage. They used some as a control group while ‘nuking’ the others with an ordinary off the shelve microwave oven. Then they compared the two sets. More information about the results of this experiment can be found at LaboratoryTalk.

Even with raw sewage, 99% of all pathogens were eliminated within 2 minutes. The only ones surviving were a few Bacillus cereus spores. Even they were destroyed after 4 minutes! If it can do that, then this sterilization method can easily handle any germ that could grow in your sponge.

SP Industries has introduced brand new features for its line of disinfectors.  It’s hard to imagine units working this well and yet being so versatile.  A wide variety of specialty brackets can fit into both the upper and lower racks of the new Hotpack undercounter glassware washers.  This ensures that enough special water jets are available to clean all your lab equipment thoroughly.

You have the option of either one or two direct injection spindle racks.  As needed, you could properly clean up to 22 of those narrow necked pieces of glassware each for a total of 44.  Those ‘dirty dishes’ will no longer pile up in your laboratory.  As they accumulate you can place them directly into the washer under the counter and out of the work space.

These highly durable and well designed stainless steel machines have microprocessor control systems that ensure energy efficiency.  Multiple cycle selections, temperature controls options up to 177F, and delayed start features allow you to get the best performance at your convenience.   They can also be internally configured to meet your specific cleaning needs.

Operating one will not only make your laboratory work better, but look better too.  The superior aesthetic design helps optimize your space requirements.   You can purchase either freestanding or mobile units.  Just fill the machine, select your settings or delay feature and leave.  Your glassware can be washed unattended during your least crowded shifts.

You won’t have to worry about possible damage to any of your pipes.   The washer has an exclusive triple filtration system that protects the plumbing and pump from broken glass debris.   It also has separate wash and rinse pumps. Convection drying is an option or you can go one step further with the “One Touch” extra dry system.  This assures all cycles are complete and the equipment will be ready to use when you need it.

Choose From Several Great Models

Available models include the H - 1115, H - 1125, and H - 1175.  They all have almost identical capacity and performance specifications; but the H - 1115 does not come with the spindle racks, and the H - 1175 operates at 230V instead of the normal 115V.  Check with your electrical engineer to find out what voltage your building’s wiring can handle best.  For more specifications and links concerning this product, please visit LaboratoryTalk.

You should be able to observe these machines in action at a variety of trade shows that SP Industries intends to be involved in over the next few months.  If you are in the area of one of these exhibits, then you might want to keep an eye out for them.  These include:

11/16/2008 through 11/18/2008, the AAPS (American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists) Annual Meeting and Exposition held in Atlanta, GA.

11/17/2008 through 11/20/2008, the 47th Eastern Analytical Symposium meets in Somerset, NJ.  This year’s gathering will concentrate on the theme of “go green”.

12/3/2008 through 12/5/2008, SemiCon Japan takes place in Chiba, Japan.  This is the world’s largest exhibition for semiconductor manufacturing equipment and materials that actively promotes products and business relationships.

MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and VRE (vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis) are both tough antibiotic resistant germs that can be transmitted through contact with contaminated surfaces. These common biologic pathogens tend to strike people with compromised immune systems. Such microbes have mutated in recent decades to become virtually invulnerable to all known treatments. The TANCS steam vapor system offers a way to fight the problems described below.

MRSA is a resistant Staph bacteria that can cause skin or other soft tissue infections and sometimes leads to pneumonia. Although the primary mode of transmission of this deadly form occurs through exposure in hospitals, it is also spread through a wide variety of other healthcare facilities. Recently, community acquired infections have been documented as well. This mutated species has been randomly tested and found on home shower curtains and other unhygienic surfaces.

VRE is a drug resistant form of bacteria that normally lives in the digestive tract. It can cause infections within the human intestines and female genitalia. The people most at risk are infants, elderly, and those with immune system problems. Most of these drug resistant forms of infections have been the result of hospital visits. These mutant bacteria have been found thriving on a variety of hospital equipment.

Basically if you become infected, there is little that can be done to cure you. Untreated you could suffer septicemia, multiple organ failure, and death. Before the introduction of antibiotics the most effective defense against disease was the human immune system. Our body’s natural defenses may turn out to be our only recourse when attempting to fight off emerging infectious germs in the future as well.

Prevention Is The Key To Safety

The spread of these emerging virulent bacteria can be slowed through fastidious and aggressive sanitation procedures. Although you cannot completely eliminate exposure, you can drastically limit it through the use of emerging technology. Confirmation that the TANCS equipment kills these germs on treated surfaces in seconds comes from studies conducted by the Texas based Antimicrobial Test Laboratories.

Clay porous surfaces were deliberately contaminated with artificial soil containing millions of viable MRSA and VRE cells. The president of Antimicrobial Test Laboratories, Benjamin Tanner, stated that steam from the TANCS system was able to destroy 99.9999% of these microbes in as little as 5 seconds of treatment. This is almost like bringing a steam autoclave to the contaminated surface to disinfect it. The tests were repeated twice with similar decontamination ratios. A comprehensive overview of these findings can be found at LaboratoryTalk.

Imagine if you could sanitize the tub, sink, toilet, tile, grout, and counter surfaces of your bathroom or kitchen with the same result. There would be little danger of spreading or contracting a community acquired MRSA infection. The same could be done for hospitals, schools, restaurants, and communal facilities at parks and malls. If you kill pathogens outside the body in places where we spend a majority of our time, then there is little chance of them getting inside our bodies where they can do the most harm. Through proper sanitation we create a barrier between these potentially unsafe microbes and ourselves.

Imagine this - you are diagnosed with a serious but treatable medical condition that requires surgery and a hospital stay.  While you are recovering in the ICU you add a new word to your vocabulary: nosocomial. This refers to the kind of infection you can get from being exposed to bacteria such as the usually harmless Acinetobacter baumannii in a hospital setting.  It may start as a chronic problem around your catheter site and cause little or no symptoms.

If the germs make the jump to your bloodstream or respiratory system massive infection can set in quickly causing septicemia and/or pneumonia. It gets worse - with the meteoric rise of drug resistant bacteria in hospital settings you may not be curable. You could be dead within days.

A. baumannii has been around for a long time but is a relative newcomer to the multi-drug resistant field. The first serious cases were reported less than a decade ago. According to the CDC, the growing prevalence of this microbe in hospitals has a significant correlation with the use of certain antibiotics but no firm causal link has been verified.

Since medical establishments are reluctant to place restrictions on antibiotic use as a control measure, the only other option is to follow sensible protocols for disinfecting surfaces and equipment thoroughly. This requires the right machine for the job and the TANCS steam vapor system fits the bill.

How Does The TANCS Disinfecting Equipment Work?

This machine uses small quantities of heated tap water rather than harmful chemicals for cleaning. The vapor is low in moisture content but the heat is turned up very high. Since molecules move about faster and more furiously the hotter they get, the mixture of hot air and water effectively jiggles bacteria loose from their moorings. But there is an additional secret ingredient - nano crystals!

TANCS stands for thermo accelerated nano crystal sanitation (patent pending). According to the manufacturer (Advanced Vapor Technologies) the tiny mineral crystals naturally present in your tap water act to disrupt the cell membranes of microbes when superheated along with the vapor. So before you complain about the water in your area being too hard, realize there is something useful you can do with that mineral content!

Lab experiments at the Antimicrobial Test Laboratories location in Texas showed a treatment time of as little as 5 seconds was consistently effective at killing virtually 100% of the germs present on test surfaces. This even worked on porous surfaces which are resistant to treatment with bleach and other sterilizing agents. For the full story on these startling and encouraging test results, be sure to stop by LaboratoryTalk.

Advanced Vapor Technologies is a market leader in providing units for use in hospitals and schools where outbreaks of easily transmissible infections are rampant. If you are concerned about the cleanliness of your own home, you can also pick up a smaller model for less than $1500 USD.

You can use this equipment on most water safe household surfaces. Since the heated vapor cools and dries quickly after discharge the risk of burns with proper use is minimal (so please read the instructions). Hopefully as this disinfection method becomes more prevalent we will see a drop in disease outbreaks. Now, if you will excuse me, I think I will go wash my hands.