FAQ - Pharmaceutical/Life Sciences Particle Counting

Question
Are you aware of any studies or technical papers on the particulate impact of wearing certain types of clothing, such as jeans, corduory clothing, etc. when wearing lab coats?

Answer

Lundquist and Reinmuller have written several articles on the impact of cleanroom clothing in sterile aseptic environments. I have not seen anything regarding the use of clothing under a lab coat having adverse effects in a laboratory, this is generally as labs are maintained at such a low cleanliness level (ISO 8 / 9) that the air change rate would have a much greater impact than a change of street clothes. If you run your cleanroom at 15-20 Air Changes / hour and are close to a limit for cleanliness, you could increase this to 20-25 and come within tolerance. If this is a concern of the cleanliness of street clothes it is typical in pharmaceutical companies to issue (and launder) cleanroom scrubs for changing into.