Biosecurity to be discussed at CR East 2002

Protecting a cleanroom against theft

Meg Villeneuve

Baltimore, MD—Many cleanroom operators have been looking at ways to protect the technology and medications being manufactured within their facilities since the attacks on September 11th and the subsequent anthrax threats. In a session being offered at CleanRooms East, March 11-13 at the Baltimore Convention Center, Biosecurity for Microbiology Laboratories, Dr. Jonathan Richmond from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC; Atlanta) hopes to teach laboratory operators how to develop appropriate security measures within their facilities.

“'Biosecurity' is a new word in our vocabulary. Its simplest laboratory definition refers to the concept of ensuring that there are appropriate safe-guards in place to ensure that microbiological materials are protected against theft or loss,” Richmond says.

Standards aplenty
So you want to know about standards and cleanroom testing methods? Maybe you haven't been in the contamination-control industry for a long period of time, or maybe you have and your mind needs a refresher course. If that's the case you shouldn't miss the full-day session on Cleanroom Testing and the New Standards co-presented by Ken Goldstein and Mike Fitzpatrick.

Now that Federal Standard 209E has been retired (See “Fed-Std 209 shelved, ISO reigns,” CleanRooms, January, 2002, p. 1) it's imperative to stay up to date on all standards that affect the contamination-control industry. “If anything, people who knew more about 209 than the ISO standard need to attend because the sooner they are on board with the ISO document the better,” Goldstein says.

“The class has been designed to be of interest to anyone [concerned with] cleanroom testing,” says Goldstein. “This session will discuss cleanroom testing from a non-biological perspective. It will provide a general overview of the field, but it will not examine the detailed biological requirements of pharmaceutical facilities in terms of the detection and counting of viable contaminants.”

Other full-day sessions being offered at CleanRooms East include: “Planning and Constructing a Contamination Controlled Environment” and “Contamination Control 101.” For the first time at CleanRooms East, representatives from RW Powitz & Associates will discuss the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) Program.

The session will look beyond the basics and take a scientific approach to compliance monitoring. “This tutorial will emphasize preliminary tasks for HACCP development; performing a hazard analysis; identifying critical control points; establishing critical limits and monitoring. Corrective action, verification and record keeping will also be highlighted. Various scenarios for food and medical device production will be discussed,” says presenter Bob Powitz.

Attendees—cleanroom technology users in the semiconductor, microelectronics and life sciences markets—will rub elbows with more than 160 exhibiting cleanroom technology suppliers keyed into the worldwide contamination control market.

Conference sessions will begin at 9 a.m. on Monday, March 11, and end on Wednesday, March 13. Exhibitition hours are Tuesday, March 12, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. On Wednesday, March 13, exhibit hours are from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will be held in Baltimore, Maryland, at the Baltimore Convention Center.

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