Care of Your Lab Coats
Lab coats are usually used to provide protection to the user from any form of contamination from dangerous chemical and biological substances. Being exposed to so many contaminants, lots of care has to be taken in cleaning lab coats. The choices for cleaning the lab coats depend on the amount of contamination present in the lab coat.
If the lab coat is not that much contaminated, you can take it home in a water soluble bag and then clean it using detergent and bleach in the stipulated amounts. However if there is too much contamination, then you have to use the services of a specialized laundry service to clean or dispose of the lab coat.
You can find out more about specialized laundry services in your area through your lab authorities. However if you don’t have the time or find it inconvenient to go to these laundry services, there are laundry services that will come and pick up blood contaminated lab coats from your lab. They charge for their services where they pick up the laundry, have it cleaned and then deliver it to your required destination.
However if you use radioactive materials in the lab, added precaution has to be taken in the cleaning of the lab coat. You have to first ascertain that the lab coat does not cross certain limitations in beta/gamma emitting radioisotopes before leaving the lab. It is only if the lab coat has contaminants below this level that it may leave the lab. If it crosses the limit, you have to contact the authorities for advice or dispose of it in the radioactive material waste bin.
Lab coats with chemical, biological or radioactive material contamination have to be disposed of by placing them in disposable lab coats and into appropriate waste containers.