Cleanroom Areas should be cleaned thoroughly in accordance with a written Standard Operation Procedure. Where disinfectants are used, more than one type should be employed. Monitoring should be undertaken regularly in order to detect the development of resistant strains.

Over time, bacteria that were once controlled by alcohols for example would develop a genetic resistance to that disinfectant, meaning it would no longer be an effective agent. For this reason it has seemed advisable to use different disinfectants to try and prevent this from happening. Although there does not seem to be any evidence to show this happening or even show the potential for this to happen, we still need to take precautions.

We use different types of disinfectant with different active chemicals because they have different modes of action. This means that they are effective against different types of microbe, and using more than 1 allows you to maximise your kill spectrum. There are many factors which will affect the type and frequency of disinfectant you choose to use including your process and cleanroom class, residues, what format it is available in, how easy it is to use and the environmental impact, amongst others. So, as a guide it seems sensible to rotate 3 agents – an alcohol, another general disinfectant and a sporicide.

If you have any further questions please get in touch.