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Why can’t I be in the room during Paraformaldehyde Decontamination?

April 26, 2017decontamination paraformaldehyde room

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Why can’t I be in the room during Paraformaldehyde Decontamination?

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Agape Instruments Services, Inc. requires that access be restricted during Biological Safety Cabinet decontamination for safety reasons. The reason that we use paraformaldehyde, is the fact that it is very efficient in deactivating the biological hazard inside the BSC. According to studies, 10 PPM is enough to kill a lab rat, 100 PPM is enough to kill a human, and the inside of a BSC during decontamination is 10,000 PPM. As you can see, it would not take a very big leak to cause some major problems. For more information regarding paraformaldehyde decontamination please see OSHA Regulations Code of Federal Regulations, Title 29, Formaldehyde-1910-1048 which addresses monitoring; posting of regulated areas; respirator selection, protection, and fit testing: medical surveillance; hazard communication and training; and record keeping.