Before entering the new clean room at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem, Penn., students must don a special suit sheathing them from head to toe.

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Before entering the new clean room at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem, Penn., students must don a special suit sheathing them from head to toe. The facility, opened at the start of this fall semester, includes a special air handling system and other features designed to keep out germs, dust and dirt, and to simulate the kind of environment crucial to manufacturing pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, silicon chips, hard disk drives and other products. The clean room will provide a training ground for students majoring in biotechnology and those who enroll in new specialized programs offering training in aseptic processing and automation control. It will also serve as a resource for businesses that previously had to send new technicians out-of-state for training. The facility was made possible through a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor.