Personal Protective Equipment In Clean Room

Various tasks in the cleanroom carry various requirements for using personal protective equipment. The purpose of these rules is not to hinder your work but to keep you and those around you safe. Proper PPE will greatly reduce the risk of an injury should you or someone around you cause a 29 chemical accident. Each chemical bench has specific PPE requirements for anyone working there. These requirements also apply to someone observing work at that bench.

General Cleanroom areas:

Users are required to wear safety glasses at all times when they are in the cleanroom. Nitrile or vinyl gloves are also mandatory.

Transporting Chemicals:

Every effort has been made to minimize the number of times a user needs to carry a bottle from the cabinets to the benches or vice-versa. Even so, we have a limited amount of storage space under the benches and thus you will probably have to do this sometimes. At a minimum you must be wearing regular nitrile gloves and safety glasses before retrieving chemicals from the cabinets. This is sufficient for solvents and developer. These may be safely transported without the rubber buckets.

Acids and caustics (besides developer) require slightly more caution. Users should get a single green nitrile glove and a rubber bucket. Wearing the green glove, place the chemical into the bucket and carry it using the gloved hand. The ungloved hand should be used for opening the door to avoid contaminating the button. This procedure should be repeated when returning chemicals to the cabinet. This method should also be used when transporting chemicals to the MOS hood. It will minimize the likelihood of dropping a bottle between the cabinet and the hood.

Acid hood:

30 All users working or observing at the acid hood are required to wear safety glasses, a face shield, a chemical apron, and the heavy green nitrile gloves. Even if you are using what you believe are “lessdangerous” chemicals you must still use the full PPE because of the possibility that someone else has left “more dangerous” chemicals in the hood and the likelihood that the surfaces of the bench are contaminated with these chemicals.

The apron should be put on first with the side labeled “Chemical side” facing the bench, followed by the face shield, and finally the green gloves to avoid touching the apron and face shield with contaminated gloves. Green gloves should be removed before removing shield or apron. Rinse and dry any contaminated gloves before removing them.

Base Hood:

All users working or observing at the base hood are required to wear safety glasses, a face shield, a chemical apron, and heavy green nitrile gloves. Even if you are using what you believe are “lessdangerous” chemicals you must still use the full PPE because of the possibility that someone else has left “more dangerous” chemicals in the hood and the likelihood that the surfaces of the bench are contaminated with these chemicals.

The apron should be put on first with the side labeled “Chemical side” facing the bench, followed by the face shield, and finally the green gloves to avoid touching the apron and face shield with contaminated gloves. Green gloves should be removed before removing shield or apron. Rinse and dry any contaminated gloves before removing them.

MOS Hood

The MOS hood is unique in that it is used for acidand caustic-based chemistry as well as solvents and thus it presents more hazards than any of the other benches.

All users working or observing at the MOS hood are required to wear safety glasses, a face shield, a chemical apron, and heavy green nitrile gloves. Even if you are using “less-dangerous” chemicals you must still use the full PPE because of the possibility that someone else has left “more dangerous” chemicals in the hood and the likelihood that the surfaces of the bench are contaminated with these chemicals.

The apron should be put on first with the side labeled “Chemical side” facing the bench, followed by the face shield, and finally the green gloves to avoid touching the apron and face shield with contaminated gloves. Green gloves should be removed before removing shield or apron. Rinse and dry any contaminated gloves before removing them.

Spinner Hoods #1 and #2:

Users at the spinner benches must wear at least safety glasses and regular nitrile gloves.

Solvent Hood:

Users at the spinner benches must wear at least safety glasses and regular nitrile gloves. Heavy nitrile gloves and face shield are strongly recommended when using heated solvents.