Designating a Clean Area

[melvolny]

Hi all,

We have recently moved into our new lab. (Loving the space and the beauty of it!!)

Blood bank is now in its own room, free from distractions (YES!). The break room is clear across the lab, very far to walk for that sip of water that is needed during a hectic workday. I wanted to designate a little area around my desk as "clean" but my manager was concerned it was too close to our secondary work station. I have hunted for any guidelines or regulations regarding setting up a clean area but I am not finding anything very specific. Anyone have any ideas where I can look or what I can say to my manager to "persuade" her.

Thanks for your ever-valuable input. It's awesome to have this forum to run to when there is an issue.

Melissa

[Likewine99]

I completely understand why you want your BB staff to have a place to grab a quick drink but I have to side with your manager on this. Do you really want people to leave their drinks in our office? What will probably happen, especially on the off shifts is that people will come in there to get a drink, with their lab coats and gloves on b/c they are in a hurry to get back to the bench.

People currently use our conference room as a place to set their drinks (it's a clean room and right in the middle of the lab) and I've witnessed first hand, techs with gloves on drinking in the conference room.

[Eoin]

Sorry Melissa,

I have to agree with Likewine99.

We too have a general scientists office / meeting / lunch room with a cooler in it, located adjacent to the labs. I too have noted scientists with coats on having a drink / sit down chat or breather(Not with gloves mind you, and I know they wash their hands as they leave the general lab area). I would not like to make a more accessible "clean area" for a quick drink. Long experience tells me it would not be clean for long.

Good luck with an area close enough to be of use, but to make scientists to change coats (or divest themselves of laboratory coat).

Cheers

Eoin

[David Saikin]

Ditto

[Avid123]

Big No-no. OSHA would certainly frown on any food or beverage in the lab. I do assume that your desk is in an area that testing is performed. You cannot even put lip balm on while in the lab according to OSHA. Do you really want to take the risk that some one would not accidently splash something dangerous into your water?

[adiescast]

I have to agree. There should be a physical division between your clean place and your testing area. Employees must not wear testing lab coats or gloves into the clean area.

[AMcCord]

You could definitely be cited by OSHA. I know of a facility that got cited because a nurse had a coffee cup on the (long!) countertop at the nurses station on a patient care floor and someone else set down a patient specimen further down the desktop for labeling. The specimen should not have been placed on the desktop, but that carried no weight with the inspector. The countertop was 'near' specimens and because something could be (and was) placed there, even though that was against policy, no food or drink allowed. That's a lot less possible exposure than you would have in your work area in Blood Bank. I think it would be a risk not worth taking.

Edited July 19, 2011 by AMcCord

[Mabel Adams]

Our lab allows covered drinks only in a designated "clean" area at the back of the Blood Bank. It is a fair distance from any patient testing, probably 12-15 ft from the 3rd workstation which is seldom used. We have been through many inspections with JC, FDA & AABB and never been cited that I know of. We do have people that will go grab their drink with gloved hands, have a swig and go back to work. (I get after them when I see it.) I don't think they are in danger from that swig but then they might take their same cup with them to break or use it later ungloved. It gets really hard to police and sort of blurs the lines of the rules. I don't think it is terribly dangerous as we do it but it creates more gray areas than I would choose to create if it were up to me.

[Brenda K Hutson]

If your desk is "out in the Lab" and is not in a closed off office, I also side with your Manager. I have worked places that were even stricter than that. At one place, I had my own office (with a door that shut and everything) but that office was out in the Lab so the Manager would not let me have any food/drinks in there. They kind of had an imaginary line drawn; where the floor in the hallway met with the floor to the Lab; once you stepped over that threshold "anywhere," it was considered a clean zone. Have also worked places where if you bring your lunch (for example; from the cafeteria) through the Lab to get to the Lab breakroom, you are expected to cover your food while walking through.

There are different degrees of strictness but I have never worked somewhere in which my desk was in the "Lab Area," open space (regardless of how far away I felt I was from testing) where they would allow eating or drinking.

I have known a couple of people (1 Resident and 1 Technologist) who got hepatitis at work.

Sorry, just my opinion.

Brenda Hutson

Hi all,

We have recently moved into our new lab. (Loving the space and the beauty of it!!)

Blood bank is now in its own room, free from distractions (YES!). The break room is clear across the lab, very far to walk for that sip of water that is needed during a hectic workday. I wanted to designate a little area around my desk as "clean" but my manager was concerned it was too close to our secondary work station. I have hunted for any guidelines or regulations regarding setting up a clean area but I am not finding anything very specific. Anyone have any ideas where I can look or what I can say to my manager to "persuade" her.

Thanks for your ever-valuable input. It's awesome to have this forum to run to when there is an issue.

Melissa

[EDibble]

:yawnstret:yawnstret:yawnstretI am the safety officer for our lab, and I have to agree with the majority here. It is a really gray area, and any inspector, be it OSHA or CAP, would be within the scope of their interpretation to cite you. It also opens up potential for a slippery slope, best to ban it all together. I am in the same situation as you are, the BB is the farthest dept from the lounge. We have managed it for years now.