Sterilisation

Providing calibration for an essential service

From the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis there was an increased demand for sterilised medical devices, from high volume products, such as needles, wound dressings and blood collection tubes, up to more sophisticated products, such as cardiac stents and equipment to maintain blood oxygen levels. Around 50% of single use medical devices are sterilised using ionising radiation, either gamma rays from radioisotopes or high energy electrons and x-rays from machine sources. The industry is highly regulated, and companies must meet specific requirements on the measurement of radiation dose.

NPL provides the essential calibration to the international radiation sterilisation industry, while not carrying out the actual sterilisation. Our industrial sterilisation dosimetry service is based on standard radiation fields and alanine dosimeters, and we are one of the few laboratories in the world providing support and traceability. Usually the calibration is realised on a yearly basis or on-demand if any change is made to the sterilisation process, but there was increased demand during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Calibration of dosimeters is an essential step in the quality assurance process of gamma ray and electron sterilisation. NPL is a ‘critical supplier’ to many radiation sterilisation companies across the world. We ensured that our calibration services were available during this unprecedented time to support industry as it strived to meet the challenges of maintaining medical device and PPE supply chains, as well as developing new diagnostic tests and treatments.

If you would like to discuss further, please contact us.

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