laundry review
Coronavirus: prevention, risks and protocols for Professional Textile Care
W
ith the coronavirus increasingly being detected in more countries other than China, the obvious question raised is that of which preparations are necessary to prevent infections in your own country and industry. For the Professional Textile Care (PTC) sector, this mainly concerns the protection of employees, in particular drivers and employees in waste sorting, but also to ensure certainty of sufficient textile disinfection. CINET, the international association for the PTC industry, sheds more light on the industry risks, prevention, processing and applicable protocols.
What are the characteristics of the coronavirus COVID-19? • The virus can be transmitted from person to person by exposure to large respiratory drops (by sneezing), by direct contact and by spreading in the air. The infection itself takes place in the respiratory tract. • The virus is particularly dangerous because infected people only start showing symptoms of the disease after about two weeks. In the meantime, they spread the virus without any awareness. • The life cycle of the coronavirus outside a human host cell is very short: it is estimated to be less than 20 minutes. This makes the chance of infection via linen extremely small as the transport time of contaminated linen is usually more than 20 minutes. The exception to the rule is that linen contaminated with faeces may remain infected for up to 24 hours. This statement is based on previous experience with the SARS coronavirus.
What are risks? • The risk of infection when transporting and washing linen is very small. The standard hygienic precautions are adequate. • The new virus is destroyed/ deactivated in the washing process by:
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African Cleaning Review March/April 2020
– Thermal disinfection – according to time/temperature rules; and – Chemothermal disinfection – when applying disinfectant products approved by CTGB.
What to do with contaminated laundry? • With regard to the supply of contaminated laundry, the customer/ care institution can or must follow its own protocols and supply it separately, marked and packaged individually. • If not, the care institution must in any case arrange for the separate delivery of linen/laundry contaminated with faeces and used in an environment with persons infected by the COVID-19 virus. • If washing is done at a low temperature, a disinfectant must be added to the washing process. Otherwise a minimum temperature/ time of 800 by 10 minutes or 700 by 25 minutes is applied. There is currently no basis for contaminated linen not to be processed.
What about staff protection? • All personnel must carefully observe the rules on good (hand) hygiene • Wash your hands regularly • Cough and sneeze in the inside of your elbow • Use paper tissues • Drivers must wear gloves when collecting laundry • Personnel tasked with sorting (dirty laundry) must wear gloves and a mouth mask (type FFP3)
In the event that contaminated laundry is supplied separately, in separate and marked bags, additional safety measures are recommended: • Personnel should wear protective clothing if there is a risk of direct contact with biological agents (for example, in the event of splashing). Replace and launder protective clothing in the event of contamination.
What to do with sick staff? • Employees who have a fever in combination with respiratory complaints (cough, shortness of breath) must contact the doctor and must not report for work. • Check whether local legislation and guidelines require reporting sick employees to local authorities/ healthcare institutes. If so, report! • GPs and the authorities/healthcare institutes can determine whether further investigation is required.
Protocols hospitals/care institutions Hospitals/care institutions naturally have their own responsibilities with regard to protocols/guidelines regarding the use of linen, work clothing and other textiles. The advice is to coordinate well with the individual healthcare facility / care institution, etc., in order to identify and resolve any points for attention. For any questions and/or further information, or other agreements that are made with buyers, contact the CINET Secretariat by email at: cinet@cinet-online.com
