Leachables: Minimizing the Influence of Plastic Consumables in the Lab

Lab Academy

Many life sciences laboratories still underestimate the influence of substances which may leach from plastic consumables. These "leachables" are capable of interfering with experiments to a large degree. With our long-standing expertise in manufacturing high quality plastic consumables, the entire process chain receives due consideration during development and production of epT.I.P.S.® pipette tips. This translates to: Only carefully selected raw materials are used, which were not recycled. During production, neither plasticizers, nor biocides or mold release agents are used, since especially these additives have been linked to leaching effects which may negatively influence your experiments.

Eppendorf does not make use of critical additives and certifies this. As several scientific applications show, there are substances used for production of pipette tips, which leach out of the plastic material during normal laboratory use.

Leachables are substances which leach out of the plastic material during normal laboratory use!

Additives easing production process (plasticizers, biocides, slip agents) are known to disturb biological assays. Thus their use must be avoided. Additives needed for product characteristics (e.g. not becoming brittle) are decreased to a minimum. Which substances may leach out of the plastic and if these are critical for assays is described by following graphic.

Do leachables play a role for pipette tips?

Due to the very short period of contact, the time window for transmission of leaching substances is very short. Recent scientific literature discussed that there may be effects after increasing the number of pipetting steps indicating a cumulative effect. For this reason a MEA test (Mouse-Embryo-Assay) performed by an exernal accredited and FDA-registered laboratoy, can show whether cell embryos are influenced by molecules from e.g. additives leaching out of the plastic of tips. Mouse-Embryo-Assays are sensitive to substances disturbing growth. Thus Mouse-Embryo-Assays (MEA) are a good validation of influence by leachables. Pipette tips have shown not to influence the growth of mouse embroys.

Certified Quality!

Proof of compliance with requirements of standards, guidelines and regulations that apply to biological, diagnostic research and industrial laboratories can be provided with product specific certificates for absence of surface active additives.

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Leachables: Minimizing the Influence of Plastic Consumables in the Lab