Rudimentary Precautions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently reported some disturbing news about the CDC's infectious disease lab in Atlanta. Researches studying Q fever, a disease caused by Coxiella burnetii, were working in a room with a containment door sealed with duct tape. The taping occurred a year ago, when a malfunction with the ventilation system pulled potentially contaminated air out of the lab. Nine workers tested negative for exposure in the incident, but the tape remains. Two quotes from the article appear below:
"It's an enhancement," said Patrick Stockton, CDC safety and occupational health manager, as he and four other agency officials took a reporter to see the door Wednesday. "We could take it off."
"I do not believe the CDC would approve this arrangement in a laboratory other than their own," Richard Ebright, a microbiologist and biosafety expert at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said of the taped Q fever lab door.
What do you think? What would the Joint Commission have to say if inspectors found duct tape a part of your universal precautions?