3 Types of Biosafety Cabinet Testing

by Kevin Smith Author

Biosafety cabinets are areas in which you can work with contaminated materials and pathogens that otherwise would be harmful to your health. These cabinets are enclosed and well ventilated to ensure that none of the contaminants enter the body while working. Given the materials that are worked with within the cabinets, it’s essential that they are held to a high standard. Prior to the cabinets being used in a work setting, they are heavily tested to avoid any potential problems. Here are three types of biosafety cabinet testing that they will go through prior to being used in a real-life setting.

Physical Testing

As you would expect with any structure, physical testing is essential to ensuring that it works. For a biosafety cabinet, this should be done to any part and redone should there be any changes or redesign. Some of the components that should be tested include the electrical parts, filters, and all of the moving parts, such as lifts, doors, motor blowers, and dampers. There should be no doubt that all of these things will work as expected when needed to keep everyone working around the cabinet safe. The type of test done to the specific component will depend on the component and on how it will be used.

Microbiological Testing

NSF International is responsible for ensuring the safety of biosafety cabinets and has created certain standards which must be met before the cabinet can be put into use. For microbiological testing, NSF International has created ANSI/NSF Standard 49, commonly referred to as NSF 49, which provides the methods in which the cabinets should be tested. These tests expose the cabinets to the type of outside contaminants they might be put up against in everyday use to ensure that it won’t enter the cabinet area. Additionally, these tests ensure that aerosols will successfully be contained within the cabinet.

Extreme Testing

When testing biosafety cabinets, some should be done in more severe conditions than you’ll likely be dealing with. For example, microbiological testing should contain a greater number of contaminants to ensure that the cabinets will work in any situation. This will ensure the safety of those using the cabinets as they likely won’t face such a severe situation in real life. If such a situation does occur, you can be assured that the cabinets will work as needed.

Biosafety cabinets are essential for the safety of those that work around potentially dangerous contaminants. Biosafety cabinet testing ensures that the cabinets work as needed.