Microorganisms, which were discovered centuries ago, have long caused problems with the health of humans. The wrong microorganisms (the malignant ones) cause illness, decay, and even death among humans across the planet. They are the harbinger of terrible diseases, such as malaria and yellow fever. And they might just be in your hospital or tattoo parlor.

Microorganisms are divided into six major types:

• Bacteria
• Archaea
• Fungi
• Protozoa
• Algae
• Viruses

They have been around far before humans and have the ability to change cellular structure, morphing into new strains, like influenza year after year. There is a solution to the deadliness of microorganisms: sterilization, a technique found by French chemist Louis Pasteur in the mid-19th century.

He found that bacteria can be killed at 120 degrees Fahrenheit and invented the technique of boil or heating instruments to kill microorganisms.

Not sterilizing an area, especially where needles or instruments that penetrate the body are involved, leads to the spread of disease and infection. For instance, in Porter Adventist Hospital in Denver, there was an “infection control breach” where up to 5,800 orthopedic and spine surgery patients were exposed to infection.

The cause? Staffers did not soak and scrub surgical instruments thoroughly, leading to tissue and bone fragments remaining on the instruments, prior to machine cleaning and heat sterilization.

Today, hospitals (and the 21,000 tattoo parlors in the United States) use a machine, given birth by the French chemist Louis Pasteur, to sterilize medical instruments, needles, and other equipment used by hand that might spread infection. It’s called the autoclave.

An autoclave is a pressure chamber, where steam and heat combine to sterilize equipment, and it has applications across many industries, including the tattoo autoclave and the autoclave for veterinarians, as well as different brands, including Statim 5000 by SciCan.

The temperature in an autoclave is generally between 250 degrees Fahrenheit and 270 degrees. This is enough to render inactive most microorganisms.

Autoclaves are in use throughout industries beyond the medical or tattoo field. Some autoclave uses are:

• To sterilize equipment after a body piercing
• In funarary practice, when dealing with dead bodies
• In laboratories, when dealing with contaminants
• In prosthetic fabrication, for sterilization when forming the prosthetic

With their wide use in many industries, the need for autoclave repair has grown. The reasons for autoclave failure are a result (generally) of one of two things: failure of the operator or mechanical failure due to age and improper maintenance.

Sterilizer repair often requires an assessment of the sterilizer, followed by certain tests. There are different steps to sterilizer repair, which will vary according to the repair company, and some companies may run a spore test as part of sterilizer repair, which involves directly trying to render inactive highly resistant microorganisms.

Autoclaves, and other sterilizers, are used in many industries to prevent the spread of diseases caused by active microorganisms, such as bacteria and algae. Hospitals and tattoo parlors understand: Health comes with cleanliness and instruments that enter the body must be sterilized or thrown away.