Laundry Review

Coronavirus: prevention, risks and protocols for Professional Textile Care

With 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: –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

Choosing a quality towel for your hospitality facility

The truth is, you can’t take an inexpensive towel and make it perform like a quality towel that you would get at a five-star hotel. This article by Austin Linen addresses the question of towel quality.

Towels have a specific rating system that determines their quality. GSM is the abbreviation for grams per square meter. All fabrics have a weight, and the standard measurement for the weight and quality of fabrics (including towels) is grams per square meter. This number refers to the density of the towel. The higher the GSM number, the better the quality of the towel.

Towels with high GSM numbers will often outlast towels with lower GSM numbers. Also, towels with higher GSM numbers tend to be softer and more absorbent towels. They are also heavier – similar to a cozy, warm blanket.

Towels with a GSM in the 200 to 300 range are poor quality stock. While towels between 400 and 600 GSM are medium weight and average higherquality towels, the kind of towels you would find at a Holiday Inn, for instance. Towels with a GSM of 600 to 900 are premium, luxury weight. This quality of towel will be denser, heavier, and more absorbent. It’s the kind of towel you will find at a premium hotel.

GSM is a direct measure of the density of a towel, so with that in mind, a high GSM number isn’t necessarily a better towel for all uses. Towels with a lower GSM are thinner, lighter and more comfortable to take with you. They would be equivalent to a workout towel that you could take to the gym or beach.

But if you’re looking for the kind of towel that you might find at a luxury spa or hotel, go with a much more substantial, fluffy towel. These kinds of towels can last for years versus the lighter, thinner towels that have a short economic life.

Luxury hotels need high-quality towels that complement their brand and guest environment, in addition to the

fact that higher-quality towels tend to last longer and remain in good condition after multiple washes. Towel fibres deteriorate over time and numerous washings, so if plushness and longevity are the key criteria, use towels with higher GSMs. The fact is, a quality towel feels softer and more luxurious.

Texcare International postponed

The organisers of Texcare International, Messe Frankfurt, announced that with the spread of COVID-19 infections around the world in mind, a decision was made to postpone the world’s leading exhibition for textile care to November this year. Texcare International, normally held every four years, was scheduled to take place in Frankfurt, Germany from 20 to 24 June. The exact dates in November 2020 will be announced soon. This latest COVID-19 pandemic-linked announcement follows other similar decisions by organisers of cleaningindustry-related exhibitions including Interclean Amsterdam and the Manchester Cleaning Show to move their respective event dates to the last quarter of this year.