Laser cuts reduce false positives in air samples

Published: 20-Jun-2006


Many current monitoring technologies do not readily distinguish externally introduced sampling contamination from microbial contaminants captured from cleanroom air systems. This can cause delays in microbiological analysis due to “false positives”, and cost time and money. Pall Corporation has introduced Ascotec environmental air monitoring systems that help solve this problem.

The Ascotec uses BioCapt impactor sampler technology to operate at a low velocity, maintaining high collection efficiency while avoiding severe stress to micro-organisms. Laser technology is employed to form precision rectangular slits exactly 90mm wide which create a recognisable pattern of micro-organisms on the assay media surface.

As a result, random contamination present outside the controlled impact region on the assay plate can be easily distinguished and the actual microbial contamination level in the cleanroom air accurately determined. This design separates the Ascotec systems from other sampling systems, which have no mechanism for differentiating between handling and airborne microbes.

“The introduction of the Pall Ascotec systems will have a major impact on the speed and reliability of environmental air monitoring in cleanrooms and other controlled environments,” said Chris Mach, marketing manager of biotechnology at Pall Life Sciences.

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