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The Biosafety Cabinet (BSC) or microbiological safety cabinet is an enclosed, ventilated laboratory workspace for safely working with materials.
 
A Class I BSC is defined as a ventilated cabinet for personnel and environmental protection.
 

Class I BSCs protect workers but do not protect work products (such as specimens or cultures) against contamination because unsterilized room air is drawn over the work surface.

  • Class I biosafety cabinets are typically used to either enclose specific equipment like centrifuges or for procedures like aerating cultures that might potentially generate aerosols.
  • Biosafety cabinets of this class are either ducted (connected to the building exhaust system) or unducted (recirculating filtered exhaust back into the laboratory).

 

 

Figure: BSC Class I Airflow Diagram
  • In the Class I BSC, the room air is drawn in through the opening that also allows the entry of the operator’s arm during work.
  • The air inside the cabinet then takes in the aerosol particles that may have been generated and moves it away from the operator towards the HEPA filter.
  • The air moving out of the cabinet is thus, sterilised via the HEPA filters before its discharge to the environment either:
  1. Into the laboratory and then to the outside of the building through the building’s exhaust system; or
  2. To the outside through the building’s exhaust system; or
  3. Directly to the outside.
  • In this way, the cabinets protect the operator and the environment from the aerosols but not the sample.
 

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