Requirements

Environmental monitoring along with sterility testing processes are critical to laboratory quality control and regulation compliance. Strict environmental monitoring requirements are set by the professional bodies’ codes of practice and guidance documents to improve working practices and safety in labs, such as FDA 21 CFR Part 11, GLPs and CAP.

The ability to monitor multiple parameters within these strict guidelines is critical for various laboratory applications typically including:

• Ambient room conditions
• Thermal Cyclers
• Refrigerators, freezers & Cryogenic (for more information about cold storage, click here)
• Incubators (for more information about incubation, click here)
• Oxygen Depletion/Nitrogen Safety

Nitrogen Safety in Laboratories

• Laboratories that need Liquid Nitrogen (LN2) Dewar’s for biological sample storage, should also be equipped with Oxygen sensors to protect staff from potentially fatal oxygen deficient environments.
• Products that detect O2 should be carefully considered when lives are at risk. Understanding the speed of effects of Nitrogen exposure to humans will assist in choosing the right equipment for your staff.
• Exposure to Nitrogen
• If the lids on the storage Dewar’s are left open or ajar for prolonged periods or a leak develops there is a risk of a build-up of gas in the vicinity. The gas: Nitrogen is colourless, odourless, and tasteless. This invisiblegas is not only undetectable to staff, but occupies approximately 700 times the volume of the liquid, and creates an immediate threat to life.
• Nitrogen is heavier than air, therefore will rise from the floor, rapidly displacing the oxygen within the room. Anyone unknowingly exposed to this atmosphere would become unconscious after only two short breaths.
• Due to the dangerous working environments, laboratory technicians are required to follow strict guidelines set out by their organization.
• Though guidelines are in place there have still been several cases around the world in recent years of laboratory technicians accidentally dying from this silent killer and companies go to great lengths to avoid staff fatalities.

Environmental Monitoring

Temperature – Ellab’s vast range of temperature transmitters are ideal for fridges at 2°C – 8°C, freezers with temperatures down to -20°C, -30°C,- 40°C & -80°C and also cryogenic storage at -150°C and-200°C.

Humidity – Throughout many pharmaceutical processes (research, development, manufacture and distribution) the effects of ambient humidity can have detrimental effects on product quality, yield, visual appearance and shelf-life of pharmaceutical drugs. Ellab’s range of precision RH/T transmitters provide high-accuracy and reliability.

CO2 – The Ellab CO2 transmitters with combined CO2 and temperature are highly sensitive transmitters measuring 0-5% and 0-10% levels with an LCD display and has been used within laboratory incubators for many years providing accurate tools to monitor environments and send alarms that can assist with maintaining an essential stable environment.

The above transmitters can be in use simultaneously and data transferred in real-time to EMS for historical data collection and alerts via email, SMS and mobile app.

Oxygen depletion for environments containing nitrogen

Ellabs monitoring equipment is already logging LN2’s Dewar containing biological samples uses highly accurate Type T Thermocouple probes provides independent and continuous logging to a centralized software.

Users of the equipment can simply combine hardwired oxygen depletion detection to create a comprehensive recording solution to multiple environmental conditions including O2 depletion.

The use of hardwired oxygen depletion sensors in this instance is critical due to the life-threatening working conditions.  Wireless technology in these instances will not trigger the alarms in the seconds required to evacuate or correct dangerously effected areas. Hardwired solutions like this provides the operators with instant visibility of any threat with visual and audible indication.  Repeater units are often placed outside the room to stop staff entering when the conditions are unsuitable.

Many companies want to monitor in their central software any excursions in Oxygen levels so that they have auditable records available.  Therefore, once a hardwired oxygen depletion system is in place, wireless monitoring systems can be used to collect data from each area for auditable purposes too.

The oxygen depletion sensors also have an analogue 4-20mA output that can be connected to a standard Hanwell wireless transmitter for the recording of the data into the central software.