Water Quality Expert | Jonathan Wilder

Total organic carbon (TOC) is a measure of the amount of “organic” carbon in the water. This does not mean organic, like organic vegetables. It means “organic” like in organic chemistry. I.e., compounds of carbon with hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, etc. Where does it come from? It could be from vegetation rotting on the ground…

One of the first things I learned in this business was that stainless steel isn’t “stainless”, at least not under the wrong conditions. Why is it called “stainless steel” and under what circumstances is it not “stainless”? It is called stainless steel because the chemical makeup of the alloy. Like all steel, stainless steel is…

Conductivity is defined as the amount of electrical current that can be passed across a 1 cm gap between two electrodes at a potential difference of one volt. One microsiemen/cm means that you can pass one microamp across this gap (Sorry, every now and then, the physical chemist in me comes out). So what does…

I had a water quality case some years ago in the southern Midwest. The issue was that the sinks, instruments, sterilizer chambers, and pretty much everything else was turning a deep green color. The water supply for the boiler, sinks, and washers was the same supply, generated in an anteroom for use in these devices….

Water hardness is a measurement of how much calcium carbonate is in the water. Calcium carbonate is also known as lime, and it is best known for leaving white deposits on everything it touches. Because when the water evaporates, you have a limestone formation left behind. Hard water can also interfere with detergent cleaning action,…

Acid, base, alkaline, neutral. These are all terms we hear thrown around but what do they do to the instruments? Terminology: So, what do these do? Acidic solutions, typically pH 1-6, are used to remove corrosion and form the passive layer of a stainless steel instrument. There is no coating applied. The passive layer is…

Water treatment to get good quality utility and critical water costs money. Filters, reverse osmosis/deionization (RODI) columns, and softeners have a cost of operation. Your argument for the capital for an improved water supply system (to go along with the prayer suggested last month) has to be based upon reduced instrument maintenance and replacement costs….

The textbook approach to this (in AAMI TIR34 section 4.2 and AAMI ST79, section 7.6) is to use utility water for every wash phase and use critical water for the final rinse. Many facilities use utility water for all phases. Questions to consider are: If your utility water is on the upper end of the…

You may have heard the terms “Utility” water and “Critical” water. Whatever happened to “tap” water and “treated” water? Those terms were not specific enough to define how best to process instruments in a Sterile Processing department. Tap water is supposed to meet the EPA drinking water standards. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. “Utility”…

Hi everyone. It’s a pleasure to be working with Beyond Clean! My job here is to get down and dirty (ok, not dirty) with the nuts and bolts of water as used in Sterile Processing, what should go right and what can go wrong. We all know the oldest truth in Sterile Processing – “If…