Glasswashing and Autoclaves

Your glassware washing team (Ying and Ike) serve 14 laboratories on four floors of the Life Sciences Institute for a total of nearly 90 bench units.

Each of the labs has developed its own procedures with respect to the preparation, sorting, transporting and storing its glassware before and after machine washing and sterilization. As part of your support group, we are directly involved in many of these activities. So that we can do our best for you, we would appreciate your help in simplifying and standardizing these procedures. Here are the guidelines:

• Laboratory personnel will rinse dirty glassware at least twice and then put all glassware, spatulas and other vessels on carts or in bins marked DIRTY. It will be the responsibility of the lab personnel to change the soapy water that is in the bins where dirty glassware soaks.

• A member of the glassware washing team, we will be responsible for taking the dirty glassware to the glassware washing rooms where the glassware will be washed and inspected for cracks or broken glassware (which will be reported to lab manager). It will be the lab mangers choice to either throw the glassware away or have it fixed. A member of the glassware washing team will return the clean glassware to the labs and put the clean glassware away in drawers, cabinets or on shelves. If the lab has a cart marked CLEAN GLASSWARE, we then will leave the clean glassware on your cart marked CLEAN GLASSWARE.

• We feel everyone including ourselves that use the autoclaves, must be trained in how to properly operate the autoclaves. There will be training sessions in the spring on how to use the autoclaves. We require that everyone use the tubs to autoclave their items in and label each autoclave bag with the PI initials. Also, please do not leave any autoclaved items in the autoclaves over night especially any waste items. Waste items need to be tossed in the trash cans in the glassware washing rooms.

• For special requests, please e-mail us at: lsiglasswash@umich.edu

• We will be responsible for taking tape off of glassware (if we can get it off) as well as re-doing the initials that are on the glassware for identification. We will not be responsible for taking lab markings off glassware that will be the responsibility of the lab personnel before they put the dirty dishes on the carts or in the bins.

• Our schedule is as follows: the labs that have over 5 benches, we check everyday, labs with less then 5 benches will be check twice a week (Tuesday and Thursday).

• Please NO agar in sinks.

• Please NO waste items left in autoclaves overnight. Please put the lab's initials on all bio-hazard bags.

• Please remember to sign the sign-up sheets when you use the autoclaves.

• The glassware washing team will be responsible for checking all autoclaves every month with biological indicators as well as schedule autoclaves quarterly with the biological ampoules to monitor the efficiency of the autoclaves. The ampoule procedure takes 48 hours to get results whereas the paper biological indicators give immediate visual results. We will also schedule leak tests for all autoclaves every quarter.