Killer technology

Ecolab: Five pillars of wisdom

Ecolab has developed an integrated solution to ensure safe and efficient execution of laundry operations and re-opening after the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond.

The company has introduced the PROTEX360° programme that helps commercial laundries and textile rental companies achieve 360° protection.

Protex360° stands on five pillars: textile washing solutions, hygiene plans to protect linen, people and facilities, BIOcontamination control, technical support and training.

Patrice Sarrazin, global senior portfolio manager for Ecolab Textile Care in Europe says: “With Protex360° we can provide laundry operations with the necessary tools and resources to maintain on-going safety after an outbreak, lock-down and beyond.”

The proper cleaning and disinfection of textiles is an essential part of an effective infection prevention and control programme. The textile washing pillar of the Protex360° solution reinforces the importance of safe and clean textiles and provides laundries with guidance to achieve a broad efficacy spectrum of disinfection (bacteria, yeast, fungi, virus) using the D+ registered processes. For example, following the new BPR regulation, a process efficient against viruses must respect the EN 14476 norm.

“Hygiene protocols are fundamental to help guarantee environmental health and safety in the workplace. The hygiene plan pillar within the Protex360° laundry protection programme provides guidelines, protocols, and procedures for ensuring the safe use of chemicals needed to clean and disinfect the different areas of the laundry facility.

Hygiene standards in the contamination risk during and post-wash are the critical ingredients of the BIO contamination control pillar of Protex360°. We can support laundries in their certification path (to either follow RAL guidelines or EN14065 and/or EN 14698 norms) combining knowledge and training by Ecolab’s team of experts to set up, monitor and adapt the right hygiene protocols.

“The perception of clean, germ-free and hygienic textiles has never been more important than it is today. Only clean is not enough anymore. Being able to adapt hygiene protocols to ‘the new normal’ post- Covid-19 outbreak, and communicate efforts effectively has become one of the highest priorities,” explains Valentina Fontana, a project manager of Protex360° programme at Ecolab.

Christeyns: ‘Clean’ and ‘disinfected’

Justin Kerslake, operations director at Christeyns UK comments: “As a global company, the Christeyns group supplies hygiene chemicals in Europe and the UK as well as around the world. It’s worth noting that not all countries have the same laundry processes in place when it comes to handling soiled and contaminated linen.

“There are strict guidelines from the HSE in the UK, and from the European Commission for Europe, on how linen should be treated to eradicate soiling and prevent cross-contamination. Laundries, healthcare and hospitality providers are now re-examining the measures and guidelines in the light of Covid-19.

“Care homes and all hospitality premises will need to ensure that linen is hygienically treated and free from any possible contamination. This means an enhanced set of measures for launderers, whether OPL or external.

“Covid-19 belongs to a family of viruses that include the common cold, and viruses such as SARS and MERS. It is a single strand wrapped RNA virus sensitive to disinfectants with EN14476 virucidal certification.

“It is important to understand that ‘cleaning’ and ‘disinfection’ are very different processes. Cleaning removes germs but disinfection will kill germs completely. In the UK current recommended treatment to ensure cleaning and disinfection is a thermal one, using a moist heat for a precise amount of time to kill bacteria - a minimum 65C 10 minutes wash cycle or 71C for not less than three minutes. It is the simplest method to prove disinfection and is easy to monitor and control and to validate every load to meet the Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS) standard.

“In the UK, to aid this process, Christeyns offers disinfectants Peracid Forte and Personril, both of which have activity against viruses and certification to EN 14476. Desosan is not yet available in the UK but is a premium biocidal washing powder available from Christeyns in Europe with registered virucidal, bactericidal and fungicidal activity. It ensures hygienic action from 60C upwards.

“However, transportation of the linen offers the opportunity for reinfection. Research over the past few months has shown that Covid-19 can remain on hard surfaces for up to 72 hours.There are multiple ‘touchpoints’ as the linen moves from the wash and dry process to its final destination, including linen cages, drivers and receiving staff at the hospitality outlet as well as any vehicles or trolleys used in the process.” Christeyns has chemicals to take care of these areas, too.

Ideal: The mission continues

Mike Kalli, founder of Ideal Manufacturing, says: “The demand for disinfection isn’t new. It’s been with us for the longest time, mostly because it’s so difficult to standardise and validate a process that applies in all circumstances. Before now, the industry has worked to the accepted principle of thermal disinfection.

“We all know there’s a wide range bactericides out there, with varying degrees of effectiveness on gram positive and gram negative bacteria, spores and (especially pertinent in today’s world) viruses. The Covid-19 virus, in theory, shouldn’t present significantly greater problems in terms of kill but there is currently no process validation against the effective removal of this virus (at the time of writing).

“Some time ago, Ideal identified that what the modern launderer needs is a process that enables effective soil removal and total pathogen kill at ambient temperatures. Anyone who knows us will have heard us banging on about this and declaring it our mission. Nobody, that we are aware of, is doing this right now - although we’ve seen some claims out there. Achieving this would be of huge benefit inasmuch as the textile care process would require minimal energy resource, it would significantly reduce the volume of polluting micro-fibres to effluent while retaining longevity of fabric-life, minimising costs and contributing to the elimination of previously deleterious environmental impacts. Our mission continues.

“However, there is good reason why thermal disinfection is still used for hospital and infectious linen over other methods and we believe that this is because it remains the most reliable way to guarantee and validate disinfection. Right now, we are actively pursuing a means to fulfilling the launderers dream and we hope to be in a position to announce our findings before long but until we are satisfied with the progress of our in-depth research, Ideal has advised all customers to wash linen at 65C for a minimum of 10 minutes.”

Michael Manktelow, Ideal’s technical sales executive, elaborates further: “In circumstances where thermal disinfection is not a possibility, it has been suggested that low temperature oxygen bleaches, such as Ideal’s DD Cool, may be beneficial to break down pathogens. Ideal has advised using these bleaching agents alongside all standard wash products where possible as a further precaution. The most commonly used oxidising agent used by launderers is sodium hypochlorite (it may be economic but it’s not good for the environment) and we are keen to steer folks away from using it. Hydrogen peroxide has limited uses at ambient temperatures although we are researching use of activators to enhance the action of peroxide at lower temperatures!”

“We also make a certified sanitiser called LL Clean which, although not tested specifically against the novel Covid-19 virus, has been shown to kill 99.9% of bacteria. This can act as a further precaution against pathogens when dosed in the final rinse.”

“Risk of contamination does not begin or end with the wash process itself. Regular safe atmospheric fogging to remove airborne bacteria should be common practice.”