CASE STUDIES
Find out how Safe-Decon helped these two medical and clinical institutions save both time and money while generating exceptional results.
Albany Medical Center
Dr. Stephen Higgins, PhD
Manager of Laboratory Operations
Regenerative and Cancer Cell Biology
Angelica Costello, a senior research technician who performs the animal work in our lab (transgenic mice, knockouts, diseased models), as well as the setup of our plates for virus inoculation. The glass plates we use, as well the surgical instruments used in the animal work needs to be completely sterile. We compare these genetically altered primary cell lines vs control group parental cell lines to begin to understand the biomarkers and role players in various inflammatory diseases. It is important that everything is sterile, and we do not carry over trace virus or bio materials from one experiment to the next. Our typical cycles are:
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Liquid – 60 minute exposure @ 131 degrees
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Gravity – 30 minute exposure @ 121°, 15 minute exhaust
Based on the indicators we use every day, and with the ones included in the demo device, your safety container was able to vastly cut down on those times. Our liquid medias and distilled and reverse osmosis waters were darker that those done immediately after without your device (it was more brown than black, and diffuse instead of crisp). Same for the pouches we use to sterilize surgical instrumentation. Our liquid cycle was run for 20 minutes (the lowest preset cycle), and the gravity cycle was done in 10 minutes with a 5 minute exhaust.
It is our feeling that not only is your safe-decon box safe, but it drastically reduces the load on our decades old Getinge steam sterilizer. Cutting down significantly on sterilization times will allow for more users per day as well, upping productivity within the Department. Thank you very much for allowing us to demo your product. Best of luck in the future, and I can't wait to see these on Krackeler's website!
Best Always,
Stephen Higgins
Manager of Laboratory Operations
Regenerative and Cancer Cell Biology
University of Florida
Dr. Henry S. Heine, PhD
BSL 3 Program Director
Department of Medicine
Evaluation of the Safe-Decon Biological waste containers:
Proper handling and disinfection of biological/medical waste contaminated with airborne organisms poses a problem for steam sterilizing units. Modern sterilizers depend on a series of vacuum/pressure cycles to replace the cooler air in the waste with steam of sufficient temperature to render the organisms inactive. Potential airborne infectious waste requires sealing the waste container tightly to prevent release of potential aerosols. This tight seal hampers the cool air/steam exchange within the waste container, requiring longer sterilizer run times to insure that air pockets within the waste achieve proper sterilization temperature by allowing time for heat conduction. The Safe-Decon system addresses this problem by first providing a hardened airtight container for the waste, accompanied by a heat sensitive seal that releases allowing exchange of air and steam during the sterilizer cycle.
We evaluated and tested this system with the smaller oval unit under a variety of test-challenge conditions to determine the effectiveness of and utility of this biohazardous-waste system. Our testing utilized Geobacillus stearothermophilus autoclave indicators (EZ Test, Mesa Labs Lot-s-518). These indicators were incubated after the autoclave cycles along with a positive control. Two autoclave cycles were tested, the first was a 15 minute 121°C sterilization cycle and a 30 minute 121°C sterilization cycle.
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Test #1 (15 minute cycle), a single Safe-Decon container, containing a single indicator rolled up in the center of a towel. After the sterilization cycle, the indicator was removed and incubated along with a positive control according to manufacturer's instructions (59°C for 48+hours) and had no growth, while the positive control indicated growth.
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Test #2 (15 minute cycle), Three Safe-Decon containers were placed into the autoclave in a staggered configuration. One each in the front and rear of the chamber, with the third placed on top of the two. Three indicators per container were placed as follows; one in a small biohazard waste bag, placed in the bottom of the container, one wrapped in a towel as in Test #1 and placed on top of the bag and the third placed on top of the towel. Again all indicators were negative after incubation.
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Test #3 (30 minute cycle), Three Safe-Decon containers were placed into the autoclave in a staggered configuration. One each in the front and rear of the chamber, with the third placed on top of the two. Five indicators per container were placed as follows; one placed in the bottom of the container, one wrapped in a towel as in Test #1 and placed on top of the first indicator, the third placed on top of the towel and the other two taped to the inside ends of the container. All indicators were negative after incubation.
Based on this testing, it is concluded that the Safe-Decon containers operate during the sterilization cycle as expected and allowed the exchange of air to steam required to achieve the required temperature to inactivate spores, the most difficult challenge to sterilization processes. The sterilization of the indicators wrapped in the towels demonstrates that the system works even under what represents a more difficult insulated condition.
Dr. Henry S. Heine, Ph.D.
BSL 3 Program Director
Department of Medicine