sterile?
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Wednesday March 18th, 2009 @ 7:46 AM
Filed under: Piercing
Hey, I was talking to a few different piercing artists in my city hoping to get an apprenticeship (got one potential) and i found out something that scares me about one shop (not the potential one) they don’t use an autoclave they have some chemical that they say is just as good and takes less time and money. I don’t remember the chemical off hand but it seems weird that people would still use an autoclave if there was a cheaper way to get the same results. am i right to be scared by that shop or are there a/some chemicals that can be used to sterilize stuff?
Chemical sterilization is briefly discussed in the BME Wiki, but honestly, most (if not all, and feel free to correct me on this if I’m wrong, people) better shops use autoclaves to ensure sterilization of their tools and instruments. Chemical sterilization uses pretty nasty stuff that can be dangerous to the health of the people working around it all day, and it’s not terrifically cheaper than the long-term cost to purchase and maintain an autoclave properly.
I, personally, wouldn’t feel comfortable getting work done in a shop that used chemicals to clean their tools - there’s too many ways to screw it up and not sterilize your stuff properly, and no real way to ensure that it’s worked properly, unlike the spore tests and indicator strips commonly used with autoclaves. Most digital autoclaves have a display that will spell it out for the operator if the cycle fails for whatever reason. It just doesn’t make sense to me not to use an autoclave!
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3 Responses to “sterile?”
One chemical I can think of offhand that’s used in medical/research settings is ethylene oxide (”gas sterilization”). Was that it?
I can’t imagine that it’s actually cheaper and faster than autoclaving though. In labs and stuff it’s only used for items that definitely cannot be autoclaved.
Xenobiologista on March 18th, 2009 at 10:33 pmAlmost certainly they’re referring to glutaraldehyde or a related compound, again only commonly used for items that can’t be heated. For the purposes of sterilisation it’s not significantly better or worse than an autoclave or ethylene oxide, IF done correctly. However it’s a nasty chemical that requires clean up steps after sterilisation and unless the piercer is experienced it cannot compete with the simplicity and reliability of an autoclave.
redeye on March 28th, 2009 at 4:21 amif they are using cold liquid sterilants inside a piercing/tattoo studio environment they are putting themselves and lots of other people at risk.
Also know that with cold sterilants they quite often have a long period of soaking time required, quite often in multiple hours. For it to achieve proper sterilization.
and redeye is right with all they stated. The ONLY issue is, and this is a scary concept to know, the majority of all shops right now are not following the proper protocols for Sterile Supply Processing. In regards to the proper protocols required to sterilize their equipment,etc.
Warren Hiller on March 29th, 2009 at 4:03 pmLeave a Comment