Yale Disease Handling Error?

[Sue Jeffrey]

In article <199408260107.VAA10093 at hobbes>, ogston at HOBBES.KZOO.EDU (Walter
Ogston) wrote:

> The discussion of what went wrong in the Yale arbovirus incident makes
> me wonder whether our centrifuges are as safe as they could be.  Sue
> Jeffries asked whether enough time was allowed for aerosols to settle
> before opening the centrifuge, but what indication would there be that a
> tube was broken before the instrument was opened?  Most breakages of
> this kind would not be enough to send the centrifuge out of balance.  
> 
> One answer should be that rotors or buckets on centrifuges used for high
> titer virus work should have a transparent safety cover, so the operator
> can see inside before opening it.  I know some centrifuge rotors are
> made like this but are they universally used?  
> 
> Another precaution one could take, though it would be a real pain, would
> be to remove the whole rotor to the safety hood before opening it.  This
> would work with the Sorvall design where there are separate screws to
> hold down the rotor and to keep the lid on, but the Beckman rotors have
> only one screw to do both jobs.  Does OSHA have anything to say about
> this?  
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Walter Ogston				ogston at hobbes.kzoo.edu
> Department of Biology			Phone: (616)337-7010
> Kalamazoo College			Fax:   (616)337-7251
> Kalamazoo, MI 49006-3295

As far as I know, the regulation is that in a P3 facility the centrifuge
must be contained in a fume hood or similar ventilation area, so that
aerosols cannot contaminate the lab. I would imagine that the act of
cleaning the centrifuge out, as I have heard was done, would expose one to
a significantly higher amount of aerosol than just opening up a centrifuge
that contained a broken tube.
OTOH, almost all the work I have done with high titers of P2 or P3 viruses
were performed in exactly the manner you described, the buckets were
removed from the centrifuge and rotor, brought to the biosafety hood and
opened there. This works very well with rotors such as SW41 and 28's that
have separate buckets. Fortunately, they are the two rotors that I have
used most often in this type of work.

Sue Jeffrey
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
New York City
email: sjeffrey at ski.mskcc.org