My Internship

PORTFOLIOSteven Palmerton

5900 Genesee St,

Lancaster, NY, 14086

Phone: 716-835-7000

Fax: 716-835-3414

www.buffalofilter.com

smoke-info@buffalofilter.com

I interned at Buffalo Filter LLC, a Filtration Group company, as a Sales Associate Intern. Buffalo Filter is the

world leader in surgical smoke/plume evacuation. While smoke evacuation systems are their priority, they make

many other medical device products as well. Their second most prized product

is their disposable cautery pens that have a sliding tube for sucking up the

plume from the cautery facet.

Buffalo Filter sells their own branded products, but they also sell original

equipment manufacturer products, or OEMs. They make their products for other corporations such as Stryker,

Covidien, and Medtronic’s, placing the buying company’s logo on their

products. 48% of their business is in OEM sales, and 52% of their sales is Buffalo Filter branded. Buffalo Filter sells their products internationally as

well. They are innovators in their niche, with 34 patents and 27 pending

applications.

What is Surgical Smoke Evacuation?

Ablation of Flesh

For every gram of ablated tissue in laser irradiation, the plume is mutagenically equal in potency as 3 cigarettes. In electro surgery the plume is equal to 6 cigarettes.

A study done in a plastic surgery center in Great Britain determined that “On average, the daily plume produced was equivalent to 27-30 cigarettes per day”

Surgical plume contains over 40 hazardous chemicals. These are toxic, mutagenic, and carcinogenic (Benzene, hydrogen cyanide, toluene, formaldehyde, ethylbenzene, perchloroethylene, and carbon monoxide being some of them).

Intact, viable HPV, HIV and HBV have been recovered in plume, intact strands of viral and human DNA have been recovered from plume, intact cancer cells have been recovered from plume, HPV cells have also been recovered from plume.

Breathing in surgical plume is tremendous risk in the OR room.

LEARNING EXPERIENCE

I was assigned by my site supervisor to conduct research on the permissible exposure limits of the chemicals released from the ablation of skin, according to OSHA. I was able to educate myself on the dangers of these chemicals, gaining an understanding of their dangers. I also was required to re-design and add information to the Intro to Buffalo Filter PowerPoint that is used at international trade shows. This PowerPoint was originally put together by Robert Scroggins, BSN, RN, CMLSO, who is Buffalo Filter’s Clinical Programs Manager. The PowerPoint was a true educational piece, informing me on most of my surgical plume knowledge. I also had to research Brownian Motion and particle sizes and ULPA filters. I was required to create an easy to understand short-bulleted article on how Brownian motion affects ULPA filters. This explained to me exactly how Buffalo Filter’s ULPA filters trap the known carcinogens in the surgical plume.

Brownian Motion and ULPA Filters

Brownian motion is a theory on random movement particles smaller than 0.1 micron. The theory says that some particles are so small that a fluid stream does not affect their motion, therefore, they cannot make it through the entrapment of the 4 layered ULPA filter media that Buffalo Filter uses. This is how Buffalo Filter collects and filters the ablated tissues plume and the carcinogens associated with the plume. Because random particles move (randomly) with Brownian motion, they would have to randomly get through the matted mesh, which is incredibly unlikely, since it collects particles 0.1 and smaller.

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