A new type of chemical hood, developed by the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) along with the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology using air-curtain separation control technology, has been widely adopted by university laboratories in Taiwan. Work has now been carried out on the development of a biological safety cabinet; domestic and foreign patents have been applied for, and the technology has been transferred to the private sector for production. The new cabinet will greatly reduce selling prices while providing more protection for workers in the biological industry.

The biological safety cabinet is the most important tool used to protect the lives and health of workers in the bio-tech industry, and it is widely employed in laboratories and production processes by universities, hospitals, and the bio-tech industry to protect workers from infection by viruses and bacteria. Surveys show that there is still room for improvement in the design of biological safety cabinets currently used in Taiwan, which arouse concerns not only about the possible leakage of pollutants but also about mutual microbial interference during the process of experimentation, which could influence the experimental results. Imported cabinets have better performance, but their prices are high.

To upgrade the technology of domestic biological safety cabinet manufacturers and reduce the cost of equipment for the biological industry, IOSH used air-curtain separation control technology to develop a new type of biological safety cabinet which, testing shows, effectively improves numerous deficiencies in existing domestically made equipment and costs only half as much to produce as imported cabinets. Production authorization has been given to the private sector, and the new cabinet will soon be available for use.

Surveys also show that a large ratio of the chemical hoods used in Taiwan laboratories are substandard. The new type of chemical hood developed by IOSH can effectively contain harmful chemical substances and reduce the exposure of workers; in fact, it performs better than the one produced by a prominent American university, indeed than all of the chemical hoods now on the market. In addition, it offers energy savings of more than 50%. The new IOSH cabinet has been patented in Taiwan and the United States, and the relevant technology has been transferred to the Hong-Tai Steel Corp. (886-5-276-7308). It has also been adopted by National Tsing Hua University, National Yang Ming University, and other top schools in Taiwan.