Sterile Plastic Petri Dishes.--Convenience of use-and-throw-away containers has been extended to serve the scientist and laboratory technician. New sterile plastic Petri dishes designed for one-time use are being placed on the market by the Chicago Apparatus Company. The dishes are used to grow microorganisms such as bacteria or tissue in hospital, research, and control laboratories. Expensive washing and sterilizing needed for glass Petri dishes can be eliminated.
The disposable plastic dishes are less than 9 cents each, depending on quantity, less than one-sixth the price of a glass Petri dish. It costs as much as 8 to 16 cents to get a glass dish ready for re-use, since it must be autoclaved, soaked, scraped, washed, rinsed, descaled, and baked.
The new Petri dishes are made of styrene plastic, are optically clear, and scratch free. They have a heat distortion point of 90 deg. C., are guaranteed sterile and pyrogen free, and are packaged to remain sterile for an indefinite shelf life. They meet the requirements for sterility set by U. S. Pharmacopeia. The plastic material contains no inhibiting agents and is inert to biological reagents.
Plastic plates containing pathogenic organisms may be destroyed by autoclaving or incinerating. The disposable plates make it unnecessary for laboratories to make a large investment in an extra supply of glass dishes for use during peak periods.
The plastic dishes are supplied 20 to a polyethylene bag which has a breather top to prevent condensation under humid conditions, and overpacked in a shipping carton containing 500 dishes.