Biological Aerosol Testing Service
Dec 2, 2015
Biological aerosol is a suspension of airborne particles that have living organisms or were produced from live organisms. The movement of biological aerosols is impacted mainly by air density and air current. Certain atmospheric conditions favor the replication of the biological aerosols, for instance when there is a high humidity level, the rate of the spores and yeast does increase. The biological aerosols can be collected in a number of ways such as:
Collection plates
Electrostatic collectors
Filter Sampling
Viable Cascade impactors
Impingers
Disinfectant testing
If a person wants to register a disinfectant product, it must be taken to a biological aerosol laboratory for testing. The disinfectant will be taken through some screening which is cost effective and it involves:
Quantitative time-kill test on a liquid film
Quantitative time kill test on a film of bacteria
Minimum inhibitory concentration test
Minimum bactericidal concentration
Disinfectant neutralization testing
“Real Life” disinfectant efficiency test
Virus testing
A number of viruses are tested in the laboratories. Virus testing is quite unique from other test methods because there should be presence of viruses before and after the product has been treated and is signaled to the scientist by infection and damage of the host cells, rather than the growth of the virus. A microscope is the one that is used to look for count zones where the host cells have been damaged. Time is actually required to give the cells to grow.
Preservative testing
Preservatives should be antimicrobial, hence they fall in line of the biological aerosol testing. Problematic biological aerosols are used such as pseudomonas aeruginosa. The following tests are used in the preservative testing:
USP 51
Custom preservative efficiency test for towelettes
Preservative efficiency screens
Hand sanitizer testing
Antimicrobial laboratory tests are regularly done on hand sanitizers. The testing of hand sanitizer is quite complicated. The hand sanitizer testing methods are two: ASTM E2315 and the minimum inhibitory concentration test. When testing the hand sanitizer, 23 species of bacteria and one species of fungus are used.
Disinfection validation
Drug manufacturers are supposed to validate their disinfection procedures. The biological aerosol testing service is to validate the disinfectant by ensuring the disinfectant has the basic requirements of a good disinfectant. The tests carried out to validate the disinfectant should be done in triplicate. Disinfectant validation can also be customized to ensure that their test protocoll adequately mimic their customer’s surface type that needs to be disinfected.
Fungal resistance testing
The fungal resistant test is done on different surfaces from drywall paint to sealant. This service is quite important to the building and construction companies. In the laboratories there are chambers that are incubators for more than 40 fungi species. The following steps should be taken to ensure that the fungi resistant tests are efficient and accurate:
Fast turnaround fungal resistant tests do take 28 days, hence laboratories ensure that they do not delay during set up or reporting.
Reliable control performance helps to know the ability of the surface to resist the fungi.
Imaging: fungal resistance tests rely mainly on visual rating systems to determine the performance.
