More objective perspective needed

To the Editor:

The June 1997 issue of CleanRooms and the Summer 1997 issue of CleanRooms International magazine featured an article entitled, “Examining ways to capture airborne microorganisms.” After careful review of the article and the references cited therein, as well as other current sources of information on this subject matter, I believe a preponderance of inaccuracies and bias cloud this article.

The authors clearly advocate one sampling technique and instrument at the expense of others which are featured in the article, or even more disturbingly, which are completely excluded from the discussion. The fact that one of the authors is employed by the manufacturer of what was concluded to be the technique of choice should alert your readers to the partiality and bias of this article.

That fact alone should deter anyone from considering this article as an objective source of information. In addition, statements which are clearly inaccurate or outdated, or which disregard current industry opinions and research, further discredit its objectivity.

Those aligned with the field of microbial air sampling realize that there is no one technique or instrument which satisfies the requirements of all applications. To purport a technique as such, to the detriment of other more widely used, well established and well documented systems, is a disservice to your readers who consider your magazine a resource.

I encourage your readers to review the aforementioned article with this in mind and to consider more objective perspectives on microbial air sampling techniques before drawing any conclusions.

Nancy Hartman

Vice President, Industrial Sales & Marketing

Biotest Diagnostics Corp.

Denville, NJ