Researchers develop new cleaning technique for hospital rooms

Disinfection system a cost-cutting tool for health care and hospitality industries

Hospital-acquired diseases
are preventable: Experts

Infectious diseases acquired during a hospital stay cost 100,000 people their lives each year – a number that is entirely preventable, researchers say.

A Queen’s University infectious disease expert and others have developed a new disinfection system that can be used to clean hospital rooms as well as bed-bug infested hotel rooms.

The new technology pumps a specific ozone and hydrogen peroxide vapor gas mixture into a room to sterilize all surfaces, including floors, walls, drapes, mattresses, chairs etc.

The technique takes its cue from natural human responses:  If an antibody attacks a germ, it generates ozone and a tiny amount of hydrogen peroxide for a new compound that neutralizes bacteria, viruses and mold.

Study results on the process are published in the December issue of the American Journal of Infection Control.

The technique will be commercialized and is expected to be ready for sale in 2012.

Source: Queen’s University

Air cleaning for hospitals and hotels

I-6500 air cleaner for hospitals,
hotels and other applications.

For the times between sterilization processes, hospitals and hotels can help keep the air clean and healthier with stand-alone air filtration systems.

Electrocorp has developed complete industrial-strength air cleaners with deep-bed activated carbon filters and HEPA as well as UV to remove the widest range of indoor air pollutants, including chemicals, gases, odors, particles, dust, bacteria, viruses and mold.

Find out more about air cleaners for hospitals and healthcare plus air cleaners for the hospitality industry.

For more information, contact Electrocorp at 866-667-0297.

Banana workers blame chemical for sterility, health problems

The chemical DBCP was banned
in the US in the late 1970s.

In a major health and safety complaint, Latin American banana workers have filed a series of lawsuits against company giants such as Shell Oil, Dole Food Company and Dow Chemical, among others, for exposure to a harmful pesticide between 1960 and 1985.

The banana farmers from Ecuador, Panama and Costa Rica allege they have been exposed to the chemical dipromochloropropane, commonly known as DBCP.

It was sold under the trade names Fumazone, Nemagon and Oxy 12.

The workers injected the chemical into the soil or sprayed it on the plantations to protect the produce against microscopic worms called nematodes.

They were exposed to the toxic chemical for more than two decades and suffer varying degrees of sterility, the lawsuits claim.

The chemical, which has long been banned from use in the United States, has also been linked with cancer, miscarriages, corneal damage, chronic skin disorders and renal system failure.

In the case of the banana workers, the inability to have children also left them stigmatized in their communities, where large families are the norm, the claims say.

The lawyer who is bringing the cases to US courts says they have evidence that the companies knew well in advance of the chemical’s harmful side-effects.

The claim quotes a confidential animal testing report from Shell, prepared by its consultant toxicology expert in 1958, which said that “among the rats that died, the gross legions were especially prominent in lungs, kidneys and testes”, and the report concluded that “Testes were extremely atrophied.”

Subsequent tests also allegedly showed that DBCP was "readily absorbed through the skin and high in toxicity in inhalation" and that "testicular atrophy may result from prolonged, repeated exposure."

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identified DBCP as a suspected carcinogen in 1976, and the chemical was banned in the United States by 1979. However, the lawsuits claim that use of the chemical continued on some plantations until the 1990s.

Source: Courthouse News Service, The Independent


Worried about chemical exposure?

Electrocorp has designed air filtration systems to improve the indoor air quality for workers in chemical processing plants, warehouses, and many other industrial and commercial uses.

The air cleaners use a very deep bed of activated carbon to remove chemicals, gases, fumes and irritating odors from the air.

Contact Electrocorp for more information.


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