The National Blood Service’s Filton Blood Centre near Bristol, UK, handles 600,000 units of donated blood a year. As well as its daily testing and processing functions, the £60m centre will be home to the University of Bristol’s MSc in transfusion and transplantation sciences. Internally the National Health Service Blood & Transfusion (NHSBT) Scientific & Technical Training team will also offer vocational courses for NHS and NBS employees and training for biomedical students.
The state of the art facility also includes Dycem high performance contamination control flooring.
NBS’ facilities manager Nick Hawker contacted Dycem during the construction of the centre to find out how the company could help prevent foot and wheel-borne contamination from entering critical manufacturing areas. He had been searching for an alternative to peel-off mats and Bio Products Laboratory (BPL), which has control mats installed in its laboratories, recommended Dycem.
Dycem Clean Zone has now been installed at the entrances to nine critical areas.
Research carried out by Dr Caroline Clibbon, senior microbiologist at GlaxoSmithKline, found that Dycem contamination control floor coverings and mats were more than 99% effective in preventing contaminants from entering a critical area.
All Dycem products contain an antimicrobial agent during manufacture, which has been proven to reduce the growth of more than 50 organisms. All products remain effective for up to five years and are included in Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). They also meet the requirements of all regulatory bodies including the US FDA.
“Dycem has proved to be a useful product in the fight against contamination in the vital manufacturing areas of our Filton centre,” said Hawker.
