Cleanroom Decontamination: Application of Hydrogen Peroxide Vapor Following Maintenance Activities

Although it is more commonly used to decontaminate separative devices such as isolators, vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP) also can be applied in cleanrooms to help mitigate control measure weaknesses, to support manual cleaning and disinfection efforts, and to reduce the likelihood of microbial contamination remaining after atypical activities occur. The latter include cleanroom-equipment maintenance operations that can require opening of panels for engineering access.

 

Panels are the access ports for machinery. Behind them are conduit areas containing wiring, sensors, and controls. Such areas are not part of the cleanroom space, so they are not subject to routine cleaning and disinfection. Thus, they can become niches for organisms (e.g., spore-forming microbes) that are adept at surviving for prolonged periods in inhospitable environments. Introduction of endospores poses challenges to a cleanroom space, making decontamination more difficult to achieve using conventional manual methods (e.g., wiping) — and thus calling for the use of sporicidal disinfectants.

 

Sandle, T. (2025) Cleanroom Decontamination: Application of Hydrogen Peroxide Vapor Following Maintenance Activities, BioProcess International, 23 (5): 30-34: https://www.bioprocessintl.com/facility-design-engineering/cleanroom-decontamination-application-of-hydrogen-peroxide-vapor-following-maintenance-activities 

 

Posted by Dr. Tim Sandle, Pharmaceutical Microbiology Resources (http://www.pharmamicroresources.com/)

@pharmaceuticalmicrobiology