In the realm of clinical laboratories, maintaining optimal air quality is critical due to its significant impact on research integrity and outcomes.

In this white paper, we will dissect the multifaceted aspects of lab air quality, addressing internal and external factors, particle counting, sensor technology, and the advanced tools and techniques employed by clinical lab managers to ensure stringent air quality standards are met.

Understanding the Importance of Air Quality In The Lab

The integrity of research, processes, and products within a laboratory setting is heavily influenced by air quality. Contaminants, whether introduced internally or externally, can compromise the reproducibility of research findings, ultimately affecting the success rates of clinical trials. Therefore, it is essential to identify, analyze, and manage both internal and external factors that can impact lab air quality.

Parameters to Monitor

Monitoring air quality in a laboratory involves tracking several critical parameters to ensure a clean and controlled environment. These parameters include:

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs): VOCs are harmful chemicals that can off-gas from materials and equipment. Monitoring VOC levels is essential to prevent exposure to hazardous compounds that can compromise research and safety.
Particle Counting: Particle counters measure the concentration and size of particles in the air. They are crucial for detecting contaminants that can affect sensitive experiments and equipment. Aerosol particle counters and condensation particle counters provide comprehensive particle analysis.
Differential Pressure: Maintaining proper differential pressure between different lab areas helps control contamination. Monitoring pressure differentials ensures that cleanrooms and other controlled environments remain isolated from less clean areas.
Airflow: Proper airflow is vital for maintaining air quality. Monitoring airflow patterns helps detect any disruptions that could lead to contamination or inadequate ventilation.
Relative Humidity and Temperature (RH&T): Humidity and temperature can significantly impact both air quality and the stability of lab processes. Monitoring RH&T ensures that the lab environment remains within optimal ranges for various experiments and equipment.
Door Sensors: Monitoring the doors into cleanrooms and controlled environments is crucial. Door sensors track when and how long doors are opened, helping to identify potential contamination events and ensuring adherence to entry and exit protocols.

External and Internal Events Impacting Air Quality

External events, by definition, are beyond direct control. However, anticipating them, responding appropriately, and implementing standard operating procedures (SOPs) and tools to mitigate their impact on the lab environment are within your control.

While catastrophic events like wildfires or severe weather can cause significant disruptions, it’s worth noting that even minor incidents such as nearby construction can adversely affect lab air quality.

Internal events can also be broken into the same categories. Obvious catastrophic events like a burst pipe or a building fire are rare, but they’re also impactful. More commonly, everyday activities such as the use of perfumes by lab personnel or the presence of pet dander on clothing can consistently degrade air quality.

We will first address predictable and manageable internal events before exploring the less predictable but still largely manageable external events that can impact lab air quality.

Internal Factors Impacting Air Quality

Internal factors are conditions created within the lab environment, and they are within your control. Once identified and analyzed, these factors can be addressed to significantly improve air quality.

Eliminating factors begins with an understanding of what introduces them in the first place. Key considerations include:

Airflow Dynamics: Understanding the pathways of airflow within the lab is essential. Does it pass through doorways and windows or is it exclusively piped in? Many modern labs have climate-controlled environments, typically involving HVAC systems. However, faulty or poorly installed HVAC systems can introduce volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the lab. Recognizing the HVAC system as part of the lab environment allows for the implementation of systems and sensors to ensure optimal air quality.
Filtration Systems: It is critical to assess the presence and effectiveness of air filtration systems, ensure they are up-to-date, and validate their accuracy through regular checks.
Entry and Exit Protocols: It’s important to establish and enforce protocols for personnel entering and leaving the lab to minimize contamination. This includes monitoring how long doors are opened, as prolonged openings can impact air quality.
Personnel: Labs should implement guidelines for lab attire, use of deodorants, perfumes, and other behaviors that could impact air quality. For example, requiring lab coats and minimizing the use of perfumes can help maintain air quality. Sensors should be in place to capture and analyze air particles that staff may introduce.
Infrastructure Integrity: It is critical to identify potential gaps, such as those in the ceiling’s sprinkler system that could introduce contaminants.
Sensor Deployment: Utilizing sensors throughout the lab to continuously monitor and ensure air quality meets required standards is essential. Door sensors can record when and how long a door has been opened, and particle counters can monitor air particle counts, alerting when they exceed set standards.

By managing these internal factors, lab managers can create a controlled environment that supports high research reproducibility and successful clinical trials. Learn more about environmental monitoring in our eBook: The Environmental Monitoring Handbook.

External Factors Impacting Air Quality

External factors such as wildfires, even hundreds of miles away can impact your lab’s air quality. While no SOP can prevent a fire or stop smoke from reaching your facility, minimizing its impact can be as simple as replacing air filters more frequently during such events.

Machinery can also play a role. Each device in the lab operates differently, even similar ones from different manufacturers. Understanding these variations is crucial for controlling processes and maintaining stability.

Other external events, like nearby construction or decisions made by colleagues in other parts of the building can also significantly affect air quality. For instance, the finance department might reduce the HVAC system to save costs, inadvertently impacting air quality overnight and jeopardizing projects.

External events, by definition, are beyond direct control. However, anticipating them, responding appropriately, and implementing standard operating procedures (SOPs) and tools to mitigate their impact on the lab environment are within your control.

To manage these external factors effectively, consider the following:

Environmental Monitoring: Implement real-time environmental monitoring systems to help detect and analyze external pollutants.
Filtration Systems: Install high-efficiency air filters to help capture external contaminants before they enter the lab.
Contingency Planning: Develop and implement SOPs when responding to external air quality threats. This includes sealing the lab and activating emergency filtration systems.
Regular Assessments: Conduct routine evaluations of the lab’s air quality and the effectiveness of the mitigation strategies in place.
Learn more about events impacting internal air quality in “What’s your IAQ IQ?”.

An Air Quality Assurance Plan

A robust air quality assurance plan starts with sensors. Sensors on doors, HVAC systems, storage units, and other critical points provide lab managers with continuous, real-time information about air quality. Identifying air quality parameters and having SOPs in place for when these parameters are not met, along with staff training are essential steps. You will not be able to take action without gaining insight.

Samples, instruments, and products can be highly sensitive to air quality. Sensors can detect air particles as small as 2 nanometers — particles invisible to the naked eye. Therefore, sensors are essential for any lab. However, they are just the first step.

Next, you must collect and analyze the data from these sensors using a centralized monitoring system. This system should capture all sensor data, incorporate your lab’s unique variables, and provide remote alerts to key stakeholders so they can take action when required.

A comprehensive monitoring system should generate reports capturing every key parameter from all components of your lab, including equipment, entryways, and even furniture. These reports, connected to every sensor in your lab and ideally integrated with business systems and technology platforms, are crucial for creating effective SOPs.

The data from sensors and reports will inform decisions on preventing adverse impacts on air quality, such as choosing appropriate filtration systems and determining their optimal placement.

Reliable filters, such as high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters, significantly reduce the number of particles entering a lab, maintaining air quality regardless of the source of the contamination. A lab monitoring system can also track filter performance and indicate when they need cleaning or replacement, moving beyond traditional maintenance schedules.

Proper ventilation and filtration technology can prevent external contaminants from affecting the lab. A monitoring system with time/date stamps will help correlate air quality patterns with internal actions and external factors, providing data necessary for making improvements.

The Importance of Particle Counting in Air Quality

Without sensors, there is no data. Without data, there is no means to improve. Particle counting is vital for monitoring air quality in cleanrooms and laboratories. Sensitive machinery can be clogged even with harmless particles (i.e., non-VOC), making it essential to monitor both the volume and the size of particles.

Particle counting is, of course, a key feature of air quality monitoring in cleanrooms and laboratoriesacross a range of science and technology disciplines. Particle counters include:

Aerosol Particle Counters: Detect particles 50 nanometers and larger by deflecting light on them, making the particles optically detectable.
Condensation Particle Counters: Detect particles as small as 2 nanometers by exposing aerosol particles to supersaturated vapor, causing them to grow to sizes that can be optically detected.

Particles can be viable (live microorganisms) or non-viable (non-living). Both types can be identified and reported via filters, sensors, and an overarching monitoring system. Viable particles, such as bacteria, fungi, and fungal spores, range from 0.2 to 30 micrometers and grow if left in the lab.

Non-viable particles, ranging from 0.5 to 5 micrometers, can serve as hosts for viable particles. If left unmonitored, viable particles can increase, which is not good.

Fighting Persistent Particles with Full-on Filtration

Filtration systems reduce the influx of unwanted particles into your lab. Various filters, including O3, UV, HEPA, and carbon filters, can clean internal air:

O3 Filters: Regulate oxygen levels.
UV Filters: Essential for light-sensitive samples.
HEPA Filters: Prevent particles from entering the lab.
Carbon Filters: Absorb strong odors and harmful gases.

VOC particles are always problematic, making VOC sensors essential. These sensors detect the presence and volume of VOC particles. Installing VOC sensors before and after filters helps identify when filters need replacing based on the particles getting through. VOC sensors should operate 24/7 to detect critical air quality drops, and along with real-time monitoring, they should alert lab managers to invisible but mission-critical issues.

Learn more about facility monitoring in our eBook: The Life Science Facility Monitoring Handbook.

See the Unseen, Measure the Unknown & Protect Science

Air quality is critical, but it is often unseen and unknowable without the right tools. Ensuring proper air quality requires a reliable monitoring system that sends remote alerts, updates, and integrates with other facility systems. Sensors, filters, and reporting lay the groundwork for stability in the lab.

At XiltriX, we offer customized lab monitoring solutions to help customers address immediate needs and ensure long-term success. Our comprehensive solution includes hardware, software, reporting, and training to deliver an air quality monitoring system that is, in essence, airtight.

To learn more about how XiltriX can protect your critical assets and equipment 24/7, schedule a free lab consultation with one of our experts.

Air Quality in the Lab: External Factors and Internal Challenges