According to advice of EOHSS (Environmental & Occupational Health & Safety Services), ventilation system must be outside of the work area. 

Presence of an independent central ventilation system is vital in all pathology laboratories due to large number of chemical types used in pathology laboratories and many of these chemicals are heavier than air.

Effective ventilation of work fields such as grossing station, work bench, etc. ; storage areas such as vented storage cabinets, archive cabinets; laboratory equipments such as tissue processor, stainer, coverslipper; work tools and also general laboratory environment is a necessity in terms of health and safety of laboratory staff.

Although ventilation system is an important issue, even though it still appears to be unsolved problem in many laboratories. Ventilation problems in pathology labs could be categorized into two headings:

•         Lack of ventilation
•         sufficient and / or inappropriate ventilation systems to be installed

Key Points of an Accurate Ventilation System

Through ventilation systems that will be installed by considering certain points, it is possible to create odorless work environments in pathology labs. To do this;

1.      Ventilation Through Central Ventilation System

According to advice of EOHSS (Environmental & Occupational Health & Safety Services), ventilation system must be outside of the work area and the carbon filter should not be used in the system. * However, it has been worked on to solve the ventilation problem by fan systems to be fitted to devices and equipments and carbon filters attached to that fans in many of the existing laboratories, but for various reasons it can not be successful.

Fundamental reasons;

•        Fans mostly attached to the device or equipment are inadequatein ventilation.
•        Carbon filters choke in a short time and become an obstacle for ventilation.
•        Only devices are connected to ventilation andgeneral environment ventilation are to be neglected.
•         Due to noise created by the fans, noise pollution occur in the laboratory therefore sometimes the only reason for the closure of ventilation.
•         Visual pollution created by channels in fans that are installed in different devices and equipments in the laboratory as listed.

Instead of such solutions, the establishment of a central ventilation system will eliminate all these disadvantages by providing effective ventilation of the media and devicesand establishment of central fan to a point away from work environment will eliminate noise created in the laboratoryand minimize visual pollution.

2.      Central Ventilation to be independent

One of frequently made mistakes is to connect ventilation of device and equipments in laboratory to the hospital’s general ventilation channels. Because each ventilation solution is designed  to remedy different problems, gathering general hospital system which should have seperate solutions and special ventilation system for laboratory under one roof will not be sufficient in solving problems.

Moreover, connecting ventilation system of lab to the general ventilation system can cause spread of polluted air captured from lab to other parts of the hospitalin case ofany failure or disruption in the lab.

The pathology laboratories ventilation system which belongs to only pathology laboratories and indepented from general hospital  will provide health and safety of laboratory condition.

3.      Blowing and Vacuum from exact points

Because of chemicals that are used in pathology labs are mostly heavier than air, vacuum should be done from alignment of work or floor and entrance of fresh air from ceiling. However, this is not taken into account often and both blowing and vacuuming is carried out from the ceiling.  When vacuuming and blowing from ceiling which is right for ventilation of a room is applied to a pathology laboratory, it compromises health of workers.

4.      Accurate Calculation and Application of Technical Values

It is necessary to do engineering calculations and applications accurately for the establishment of an efficient ventilation system. For this purpose, accurate determination of the capacity of blowing and vacuuming, exact choice of diameter of the channel are crucial factors.

ODORLESS PATHOLOGY LABORATORY IS POSSIBLE!