First moves against the problem

When fighting contaminations of  4 or 5 difrent types of fungus and bacteria, all possibilities must be taken seriously. So, my first, and in my opinion most logical step, was to ensure that all the typical "sneak out's" of spores or viable contamination vectors into the flasks (sneak in's for the matter) were reduced to a minimum.

Looking around in the lab i found some unused contaminated flasks with medium, wich quickly led me to the conclusion that for shure the problem would have more than one origin.

A few changes:

I substituted the petri dishes by autoclaved newspaper squares for explant handling. It seemed more pratical, to work in a constantly renewed absorbant working surface.

I made a small scalpel and forceps stand with stainless steel wire for each worker. Autoclaved petri dishes were being used as the stands.

I made 4 flask double sleeves, with autoclave bags and a vaccum plastic bag sealer. This took a while but allowed us to store autoclaved flasks with more reliability. 

I encouraged operators to reduce they ovements around te lab to pick up materials.

I tried to make bigger batches of medium to allow a small quarentine for each batch before usage.

I made the autoclaving and dosing a more sistematic, quick, and single oriented operation.

why?  because dosing was being done in small batches and sharing space in the laminar flow hood with another worker doing the handling. Acording with the operators themselves shortage of medium was constant.

I tried to improve comunication from the operators with me. They were accounted frequently as the origin of the problem and became fearfull of theyr own activities and change.

I institucioalised the use of foot protection, hair and face masks, gloves and general asséptic procedures as obligatory in all circunstances, although my bosses were still walking around and bringing visitors randomly and unnoticed without any of these worrys. =) not so funny...

I created a small closet for lab coats sterelization with a UV lamp daily after work.

I forbiden any brooming or sweeping in the culture chamber and transfer rooms. Big flash when i saw a person brooming in the culture room.

ffff whatelse have i done...it's late tomorow i will tell you more....