Bacteriological Safety Cabinet Fort Detrick Maryland 1950s

In 1955, representatives from Camp Detrick, Pine Bluff Arsenal, Arkansas, and Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah met together at Camp Detrick in Frederick, Maryland. The purpose of the meeting was to share knowledge and experiences regarding biosafety, chemical, radiological, and industrial safety issues that were common to the operations at the three principal biological warfare (BW) laboratories of the U.S. Army. This meeting was the 1st Biological Safety Conference. A key topic of discussion was the Class III cabinet system installed recently at Camp Detrick which was to be the "Cabinet of the Future." This innovative design was developed jointly by safety and engineering personnel at Camp Detrick and equipment engineers at the Blickman Company. Air entering the Class III cabinet system was filtered and the exhaust air was both filtered and incinerated. Panels, windows, and adjacent cabinets were joined with interstitial neoprene gaskets and secured with stainless steel bolts and nuts. Problems with the cabinet system included difficulty in obtaining leak tightness, formation of moisture in the bottom of the incubators, and the long time required to pass materials and animals between the two animal levels. At later conferences, Ultraviolet Airlocks and the use of rubber gloves with Class I and Class III safety cabinets were discussed. It was noted that these rubber gloves had a propensity to leak around the area adjacent to the hand rolled bead. There was much concern about this problem because the leaks were difficult to locate and repair in spite of the dielectric test performed on each glove during fabrication. For more information on the history of biological safety, go to the website, http://www.absa.org/abohist1.html , History of the American Biological Safety Association. For more on biological safety cabinets today, go to http://www.cdc.gov/OD/OHS/biosfty/primary_containment_for_biohazards.pdf .

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Bacteriological
• biological
• safety
• cabinet
• laboratory
• hood
• engineering
• control
• hazard
• biowarfare
• WMD
• CBRNE
• DOE
• CDC
• OSHA
• NIOSH
• EPA
• NIEHS
• hazwoper
• industrial
• hygiene
• disease

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