The Question posed directly:

“Hi. I have a cleanroom question. When collecting an air sample with an air sampler device can you put the impactor head down when changing the plate.  Can you put the lid of the plate down when you change the plate.  What do you do with the two lids when changing the plate as I thought you could not put them down.

Thanks“

My reply was this:

“Thanks for the question. Here is what I think you are asking:
What does the operator do with 1, the petri dish lid and 2, the impactor/sampling head?

1. Petri dish lid. It gets placed face down on a sanitised surface for the duration of the sampling.
2. There is nothing to prevent putting the impactor head down though there is no need to put it down. It is possible to remove the imactor head with hand 1, place a petri dish on the sampling stand and remove its lid with hand 2 and replace the impactor head with hand 1 without putting anything down but the petri dish lid. The process is then reversed when sampling is completed. As the process can be performed without putting the impactor head down, I would not put the head down – less equipment manipulation and movements needed to accomplish the task so less risk that something will go wrong or a sample will be compromised.

PIC/S PE009-14 is more concerned about risk mitigation than v13 so as long as a company can show why they do what they do and how that is an acceptable risk the it is all good.

If want to ask more questions or need clarification, I encourage you to ask.

I hope you are well.

Kind regards. Paul”

Their followup.

“Thank you. This is great. It was exactly what I was asking.“