Contamination Control

Contamination reaches a controlled environment through three routes: personnel, whatever crosses the door, and surfaces. Contamination control is the set of barriers that cuts each one before the particle reaches the product.

Personnel is the most constant source. Skin, hair and street clothing shed particles continuously, which is why disposable apparel and face masks are the first line: they do not remove the source, they contain it.

Materials and footwear drag dirt in from uncontrolled areas. That is what the sticky mat retains at the entrance, in the last few metres before the door, while stopping it is still cheap.

Process residue is left on surfaces and has to be removed without seeding fibre again. The criterion there is not how much the wipe absorbs, but how much particle it generates itself as it passes.

What it takes

• Disposable apparel to contain what personnel shed
• Sticky mats at entrances, for what comes in from the floor
• Low-linting wipes, to clean without leaving fibre behind
• Face masks as a respiratory barrier in controlled-hygiene areas