Illuminated Safety Optic

Pull Cable System

A GLARING SAFETY ISSUE & RESOLUTIONS in

LABORATORY ANIMAL FACILITIES

Bulk Sterilizing equipment, having walk-in chambers of approximately 48” wide x 84” high x 84” long or greater, are without any safety devices

inside their chambers. Moreover, some 80-90% of this equipment in the field have NO emergency stop safety systems of any kind, such as emergency stop push buttons outside the equipment, despite the known risks and fatalities. These pieces of equipment, despite the real and inherent dangers of entrapment, have previously been exempt from interior emergency mechanism because of their design.

 

Fatalities, human and nonhuman, have occurred in facilities with related equipment. 2,3,4  In the National Safety Council statistics 1992-2001, the cost to any employer was $1.15 million per employee death, excluding social costs, in 2001 dollars. 5, 6

 

A confined Space*2,3  is defined in part as:

• Large enough to enter and work

• Having a limited means of egress

• Not designed for continuous worker occupancy

• Extreme heat, cold, or noise or contains any other recognized safety or health hazard, such as … heat stress

*   An “enclosed” space is potentially a confined” space

AAALAC Position Statement:

AAALAC’s position statement regarding the Safety Requirements for Walk-In Cage/Rack Washers and Bulk Sterilizers taken from the guide 4,5:

 

“....entrapment must be eliminated” from “equipment, such as cage/rack washers, and bulk sterilizers…”

“....equipped with functioning safety devices that prevent staff from becoming trapped inside”

“....an emergency shut-off mechanism that is easily accessible from anywhere inside the machine and which de-energizes the equipment”

 

“AAALAC International has identified three key factors that must be  considered when developing the safety plan for this equipment:

•  Ease of egress

•  De-energizing* mechanism

•  Personnel training.

 

1)  https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/confinedspace/

2)  https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/86-110/

3)  https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/confinedspaces/

4)  AAALAC International, position statement http://www.aaalac.org/accreditation/positionstatements.cfm#walk in

5)  Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals: 8th Edition, pg 143, http://www.nap.edu/catalog/12910.html

6)   A GLARING SAFETY ISSUE & RESOLUTIONS in LABORATORY ANIMAL FACILITIES -

      Article Fully Referenced (PDF)

 

A NOVEL APPROACH to resolve this safety issue is the  Illuminated Fiber Optic Safety Pull Cable System to provide safe guarding within the chambers of bulk sterilizers and other enclosed and confined spaces.  The bulk sterilizer manufactures who have committed to proving out the System, have the stated their intentions of incorporating this system in their equipment.

 

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