KNOWLEDGE New white paper on surface disinfection and sustainable wipe fibres It‘s all about the fibres Fibre residues and lint can cause serious problems in the healthcare sector: this has been known for many years and is why, for example, textiles used in operating theatres are particularly low-linting. This greatly reduces the risk to patients. As sustainability becomes more and more important in the healthcare sector, and new, more environmentally friendly materials are increasingly used, the ’health problem of fibre residues‘, which is actually quite well solved, is becoming more and more topical. Possible problems: contamination, wound healing, measurement errors, etc. Lint can be contaminated with pathogens and expose patients to pathogens. This may be the case with disinfectant wipes once the alcohol has evaporated. Fibre residue can also impede the healing process and/or lead to granulomas (usually benign, granular new tissue formations) and tissue adhesions if it gets into a wound. Inside technical equipment, lint can cause malfunction. For example, if they accumulate in the equipment and affect measurements. Last but not least, lint producing disinfectant wipes can have a negative impact on compliance: for example, if users find it inefficient to disinfect surfaces with such a wipe because they have to wipe again and again to remove fibre residues. Possible solution: cellulose wipes without an intermediate pulp layer When nonwoven wipes for surface disinfection come from sustainable sources, they are beneficial for the environment. But how much fibre residue do these new materials leave behind? Experiments with soaked and then pressed and dried flowpack stacks of wipes show that cellulose-based wipes with a pulp layer leave behind five times more fibre residue than wipes without a pulp layer. The cellulose-based Bacillol® product family (Bacillol® 30 Sensitive Green Tissues and Bacillol® Zero Tissues), both of which have no pulp interlayer, did not differ significantly from the long-established Bacillol® 30 Sensitive Tissues with a PET plastic fibre interlayer. They are much more than ’just‘ the carrier material for the disinfectant: the fibres of pre-saturated disinfectant wipes influence, among other things, the efficacy, sustainability and efficiency of surface disinfection. A new white paper from the HARTMANN SCIENCE CENTRE (HSC) highlights all the aspects that need to be considered when using disinfectant wipes made from renewable cellulose-based fibres instead of PET fibres. Here is a brief summary of the key points: Fibre residue after disinfection with a high linting disinfectant wipe on a patient bed with a structured surface pulp 10
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