ah6tyfour

I've worked in many labs and have done cell culture for more than 10 years now and I've never seen anyone insist that anything entering the incubator must be sprayed with ethanol and wiped down.  I have just joined a new lab to train the staff and realized the PI has very limited experience in the lab.  

Does anyone think that wiping down their flasks prior to incubating does anything beneficial?  When I first stepped into this lab, the first thing I saw was three researchers wiping down over 20 T-75 flasks one at a time (and dropping one onto the floor).

Ethanol doesn't really kill anything nasty, you run the risk of getting it in your cells, and wiping every surface with a kimwipe is probably just introducing more contaminants.

Am I right in thinking this?

Since I'm hired to get this lab going, I want to put an end to this tedious task, but I want to have solid reasons so I can go to the PI and make my case.  If anyone knows of a paper or a tech note or something that says not to wipe down prior to incubation, I'd really appreciate it.