An assessment of environmental contamination arising from the use of equipment for carrying out the ELISA technique in microtitre plates.

The generation of aerosols and the contamination of surfaces arising from the use of equipment for the filling, diluting in, and washing of microtitre plates used in ELISA techniques have been measured. With the exception of vacuum pump outlets no significant amount of aerosol was generated by any of the equipment tested. The fitting of a small air filter to vacuum pump outlets eliminated any hazard from this source. Some low level contamination of surfaces was detected. Except when working with known, or suspected, highly infectious materials there is no evidence to support the need to operate the equipment within a microbiological safety cabinet.