Biomaterial Database

Standard aeration for gas-sterilized plastics. 1977

J D White

In an effort to provide guidelines for standardizing aeration times for plastics sterilized with ethylene oxide, an Aeration Index has been developed. Based on the rate of diffusion of ethylene oxide in selected polymers, the Index provides an indication of the aeration time at ambient temperature (23 degrees C) for the ethylene oxide concentration in freshly sterilized plastics to drop to 50 parts/10(6).

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D010969	Plastics	Polymeric materials (usually organic) of large molecular weight which can be shaped by flow. Plastic usually refers to the final product with fillers, plasticizers, pigments, and stabilizers included (versus the resin, the homogeneous polymeric starting material). (McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 4th ed)	Plastic
D005027	Ethylene Oxide	A colorless and flammable gas at room temperature and pressure. Ethylene oxide is a bactericidal, fungicidal, and sporicidal disinfectant. It is effective against most micro-organisms, including viruses. It is used as a fumigant for foodstuffs and textiles and as an agent for the gaseous sterilization of heat-labile pharmaceutical and surgical materials. (From Reynolds, Martindale The Extra Pharmacopoeia, 30th ed, p794)	Oxirane,Oxide, Ethylene
D000776	Anesthesiology	A specialty concerned with the study of anesthetics and anesthesia.
D013242	Sterilization	The destroying of all forms of life, especially microorganisms, by heat, chemical, or other means.
D013696	Temperature	The property of objects that determines the direction of heat flow when they are placed in direct thermal contact. The temperature is the energy of microscopic motions (vibrational and translational) of the particles of atoms.	Temperatures
D013997	Time Factors	Elements of limited time intervals, contributing to particular results or situations.	Time Series,Factor, Time,Time Factor