5 Odd Ways to Keep Contamination Away

It’s critical to prep yourself before you enter into your cleanroom. What happens, or fails to happen, in the gown room can be a leading indicator to operator-based foreign matter. You go through all of the proper steps to make sure that you are not bringing in extra contamination. You wash your hands, put on multiple clean layers over your street clothes, and make sure that you are donning your cleanroom apparel on the proper side of the gowning area.   In spite of going through all of the documented steps, sometimes that still isn’t enough. Here we have defined the top 5 things you can do to stop the spread of contamination beyond wearing the appropriate controlled environment apparel & gloves.

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1. Good Hygiene & Clean Clothes
Making sure that you are clean before you come into work is a great habit to get into! Taking a shower and putting on clean clothes is a sure way to get rid of some of the extra contamination before coming into work. This helps to wash away small particles such as dead skin, dirt, hair, and much more.   When unable to control good hygiene, some facilities have resorted to installing on-site showering facilities, and operators are required to shower, and don factory provided scrubs.

2. Proper Donning Techniques

The proper donning techniques can really to help keep contamination out. If you were to improperly put on your critical environment garments you could be putting contamination on your garments or leaving spaces where contamination could slip out and into your critical environment.

3. Limited Talking While in Cleanroom

Limiting your talking while you are in your cleanroom is also a great way to keep contamination out. When you are talking you are putting contamination from your saliva into your cleanroom. Speaking loudly (100 words) can put 250 particles into the cleanroom. A cough can put out 5,000 particles, and a sneeze can put out 1,000,000 particles.

4. Only Use Cleanroom Pens and Paper

Using only cleanroom pens and paper is also a great way to keep the contamination out. When you bring in regular pens and paper into your cleanroom, you are also bringing the contamination in with them. These products are not critical environment compliant.   This means that they are not appropriate to bring into your environment.


5. Close Entrances & Exits of Cleanroom 

While this may seem unnecessary to repeat, some do forget to do it. Whenever you enter or exit a cleanroom it is very important to make sure that the door is shut behind you. If you fail to do this, you are literally opening the door for contamination to come into your critical environment.