Aerosol hazards from some clinical laboratory apparatus.

Infectious diseases, such as infectious hepatitis, may be transmitted from patients to staff in clinical laboratories and dialysis units during the performance of necessary procedures. This prompted us to examine the propensity of several items of commonly used apparatus to produce aerosols of infected blood. These were a microhaematocrit centrifuge, an AutoAnalyzer stirrer, and a microtonometer. We also compared some blood sample tubes with two types of lid. The results showed that all of these are potential sources of infection for laboratory staff.