Engineering controls refer to methods to remove or isolate a hazard or hazardous condition. They are designed to place a protective barrier between the worker and the workplace hazard, which usually involves special design elements and/or equipment. Clinical laboratories utilize engineering controls to provide and integrate safety features to minimize or eliminate potential hazards for exposure to infectious material. Proper use of engineering controls in the laboratory will help provide protection from bloodborne pathogens and OPIMs.
Environmental and engineering controls both aim to reduce the spread of pathogens and reduce the contamination of surfaces and inanimate objects. For COVID-19, they include providing adequate space to allow social distance of at least 6 feet to be maintained.
Examples of engineering controls in the clinical laboratory include:
- Self-sheathing needles
- Sharps disposal containers
- Disposable resuscitation bags
- Biological safety cabinets (BSCs)
- Hand washing facilities
- Physical barriers or partitions (e.g., splash guard, plexiglass)
- Air-handling systems (with appropriate directionality, filtration, exchange rate, etc.) that are properly installed and maintained
- Sealed centrifuge cups
18. Gathany, James. "This 2003 photograph depicted Deborah Cannon of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Special Pathogens Branch, processing severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus specimens, performing this activity within the confines of a sterilized flow hood." CDC.gov, 2003, https://phil.cdc.gov/Details.aspx?pid=3673
