http://EBDBlog.com/2008/05/12/clean-room-study/ News, commentary, resources, and more about Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. Fri, 09 Jan 2009 22:11:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 http://EBDBlog.com/2008/05/12/clean-room-study/comment-page-1/#comment-52946 JohnP Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:06:57 +0000 http://EBDBlog.com/?p=373#comment-52946 Interesting idea. I have experience in the clean room field and this is the first I have heard about a treatment for Autism. At first I thought, "What an oxymoron, a clean child area. Having three children of my own I understand the compliance issues with keeping a area habitated by children to an cleanroom ISO classification of 5 or 6. I am not sure what classification of room the experiments hope to create but if the classification is an ISO 5 or 6 or 7 the task will be a full time around the clock job filled with spray bottles and wipes. What makes a clean room clean is not just how it is built. HEPA filters can only do so much. As a clean room designer, I always stress the importance of SOP techniques. Any SOP writen for a class 1-100,000(FS) or 5-8(ISO) should specify that only trained personell should have access to the clean area. The aseptic conditions are maintained short term by booties, hairnets, lab coats and goggles. There should be a line drwan for this experiment considering quality of life. For example, let's say the experiment doesn't work and you have subjected children to dwell in a 'sterile' envirnoment for months/years(I am not familiar with the scope). Surely that would be considered abuse, would it not? No swings or dirt or bloddy noses or all the other earmarks of normal 'dirty' childhood. I guess what I am trying to say is that I think the clean room idea as therapy or a cure for Autism is far fetched. What may not be far fetched is creating and mainting ISO cleanroom conditions of 5-8 in hospital operating and baby delivery rooms. Organizations such as the United States Pharmacopia have already set such standards for hospital CSP(compound sterile preperation) areas to combat staph and other infections. Maybe the Autism study has the right idea but the wrong implementation. I would be shocked to find out that not only was someone able to maintain a clean room environmant filled with children but that due to the clean environment the disease of Autism was cured. Though, it would be nice. Interesting idea. I have experience in the clean room field and this is the first I have heard about a treatment for Autism. At first I thought, “What an oxymoron, a clean child area. Having three children of my own I understand the compliance issues with keeping a area habitated by children to an cleanroom ISO classification of 5 or 6. I am not sure what classification of room the experiments hope to create but if the classification is an ISO 5 or 6 or 7 the task will be a full time around the clock job filled with spray bottles and wipes.
What makes a clean room clean is not just how it is built. HEPA filters can only do so much. As a clean room designer, I always stress the importance of SOP techniques. Any SOP writen for a class 1-100,000(FS) or 5-8(ISO) should specify that only trained personell should have access to the clean area. The aseptic conditions are maintained short term by booties, hairnets, lab coats and goggles.
There should be a line drwan for this experiment considering quality of life. For example, let’s say the experiment doesn’t work and you have subjected children to dwell in a ’sterile’ envirnoment for months/years(I am not familiar with the scope). Surely that would be considered abuse, would it not? No swings or dirt or bloddy noses or all the other earmarks of normal ‘dirty’ childhood. I guess what I am trying to say is that I think the clean room idea as therapy or a cure for Autism is far fetched.
What may not be far fetched is creating and mainting ISO cleanroom conditions of 5-8 in hospital operating and baby delivery rooms. Organizations such as the United States Pharmacopia have already set such standards for hospital CSP(compound sterile preperation) areas to combat staph and other infections. Maybe the Autism study has the right idea but the wrong implementation. I would be shocked to find out that not only was someone able to maintain a clean room environmant filled with children but that due to the clean environment the disease of Autism was cured. Though, it would be nice.

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