Centrifuges (All centrifuge buckets must be covered with bucket covers while centrifuging and may only be opened in the biosafety cabinet.)
A. Non-hermetically sealed centrifugation
Any centrifuge operation in the BSL-3 involving non-hermetically sealed containers, carriers, rotors, or tubes must be carried out inside a biosafety cabinet.
B. Hermetically sealed centrifugation
Centrifuges that have carriers, rotors, or tubes that can be hermetically sealed can be used outside of the biosafety cabinets, provided that all potentially aerosol-producing manipulations are carried out within the biosafety cabinets prior to centrifugation. Carriers, rotors, and tubes must be loaded, balanced, sealed, and reopened only in the biosafety cabinet. Tissue culture plate carriers have no hermetically sealable lids. However, plates can be spun in the benchtop centrifuges at low speeds in their dedicated carriers. These plates must first be well sealed with tape and tightly enclosed in small biohazardous waste bags before being placed into the carrier, and that they are not opened at any time outside of the working environment of the biosafety cabinets.
C. Spills in a centrifuge
If a user suspects that there has been a spillage inside a centrifuge within the BSL-3 facility, the centrifuge should not be opened! The centrifuge should be marked visibly with some sort of sign or some tape placed over the still closed handle that warns other users: "suspected contamination: DO NOT OPEN!" The incident must be reported to the BSL-3 Laboratory Manager or the Safety Officer immediately. They will do a risk assessment of the situation and decide on a course of action for decontamination.
The Wistar Institute
Biosaftey Level 3 Laboratory Code of Practice