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Article: Decontamination methods and selection.(SELF-STUDY SERIES)
- Article from:
- Healthcare Purchasing News
- Article date:
- January 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Healthcare Purchasing News. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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What is "decontamination?"
Is it bed pans being processed through a washer? A colonoscope being soaked in glutaraldehyde? Perhaps it's a container of instruments being processed in a sterilizer. Actually, all of these activities are examples of decontamination. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) describes decontamination as "the use of physical or chemical means to remove, inactivate, or destroy blood-borne pathogens on a surface or item to the point where they are no longer capable of transmitting infectious particles and the surface or item is rendered safe for handling, use, or disposal."
The medical community expands on this ...