CHICAGO — Infection control related to textiles and laundry processing continues to be a major issue in the industry.
Textile providers are searching for fabrics that won’t spread bacteria, and laundry operations are looking for products that can stay clean even after processing—without the need of high heat and harsh chemicals.
A recent study showed that microfiber products can help prevent the spread of bacteria, particularly Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
Murray Cohen, Ph.D., MPH, CIH, along with Jonathan Lawson, Ph.D., tested a range of textiles, from industry standard cotton products to microfiber products from Enviro-Linen, based in Ridgeland, Miss.
“We said let’s design kind of a quick study to see if this makes any sense,” Cohen says. “Turns out that it did. What’s the significance of these lab tests? The significance is that they really do make a difference.”
The tests showed that MRSA on microfiber products, including gloves, napkins and towels, was reduced by nearly 100% two hours after initial contact. Poly-cotton textiles showed a 72% reduction rate, and cotton products displayed only 27% reduction.
“This means if a cotton product is exposed to MRSA, there is a 75% chance it will transfer onto the next person to come in contact with it,” Cohen says. “With the Enviro-Linen fabric, there is less than a 0.25% chance of MRSA transferring to you or to others.”
The study was initiated by Enviro-Linen and its parent company, Medical Grade Innovations (MGI), because of the goals of founder and CEO Bert Rubinsky.
According to Allen Salvage, CIO and partner, Rubinsky, in his search for better washing, discovered fabrics with certain other benefits.
“That made him want to start exploring the world of how fabrics can change things in healthcare,” Salvage says. “He started finding all this information about how poor cotton is against bacteria and spreading infection in hospitals.”
He says Rubinsky started MGI to offer a system that can help reduce the spread of infection.
“That inevitably spawned into Enviro-Linen,” says Salvage. “That’s how we got into the study.”
The personal experience of company COO Kenny Perry helped move the study toward investigating whether or not microfiber products help prevent the spread of MRSA in particular. “The COO of our company got MRSA from a gym towel and almost lost his leg,” says Salvage.
Cohen says cotton is an organic material that actually serves as a nutrient for bacteria.
“Microfiber products aren’t organic,” he says. “It doesn’t provide a nutrient environment for the bacteria to grow, that’s one factor.”
Another factor that makes microfiber more bacteria-resistant is the finish.
“What this means is down on the cellular level of the bacteria is what we call substrate. It has something to latch onto, to hold onto,” says Cohen. “Say in a hospital setting, where a sheet or a towel or a scrub worn by a healthcare professional gets contaminated with a bodily fluid, for example, that has the bacteria in it, it literally doesn’t roll off. Finish itself can make a difference for how long a bacterial colony can grow on a fabric.”
Cohen says that one of the ways that superbugs get out of hospitals and into the community, like MRSA did some years back, is healthcare workers get it on their scrubs, patients get it on the towel and then the scrubs or towels get out of the hospital and to the home environment.
“The home environment has lesser conditions of laundering process and the bugs then establish themselves in the community and can spread from person to person,” he says.
Then, says Cohen, there is the weaving, the interstitial matrix, the particular way in which the fibers are oriented together.
“Within the textile industry, what those matrices are, how they are woven, that’s a real important factor or feature in the performance factor in whatever usage it’s going to be put to,” he says. “My looking at it as a microbiologist, what are the better or worse environments for bacteria to grow and thrive, and then contaminated fabric could cause and spread infection.”
The particular tests Cohen and Lawson conducted with microfiber displayed how well the fabric retains the bacteria as opposed to shifting it. One of the ways that contaminated garments can spread the infection during laundry processing, he says, is that lint from cotton can be spread in the environment.
“Our tests showed that once the bacteria are bound in those matrices in the microfibers, they just stayed there,” says Cohen. “You couldn’t shake them loose, which means once you put them in the laundry and subject them to heat and chemical laundry products that are designed to kill the bacteria, it’s going to kill them.”
“That non-linting component of microfiber is a really big deal,” Salvage says. “With cotton, you have to use really harsh chemicals and really crank up that heat to get it clean. With microfiber product, you don’t have to use as much heat. That’s why you save so much energy, not to mention they are lighter in weight.”
“There’s an awful lot more textile research that should be done,” Cohen adds, “but right now we know that microfiber is a good idea.”
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].