Environmental Services

Local activists continue to voice their objections at area hospitals over the practice of trucking infectious medical waste through local communities to be treated at a remote facility. As Safe Hospitals Safe Communities spokesperson Debra Pelletier notes, "We are visiting area hospitals to raise awareness about the transportation of medical waste through local communities and ask for safer disposal of medical waste. Nearly 1,000 hospitals now use on-site sterilization technologies that prevent infectious medical waste from being trucked through our neighborhoods, thus stopping the spread of infectious pathogens and preventing possible accidents and spills."

SCA, the makers of the Tork® brand of away-from-home paper products announces highlights from the third annual Tork Report, a comprehensive look at sustainability issues and hygiene practices among North American businesses and consumers. The 2012 Tork Report, "The Sustainability Gap," highlights areas where companies have made progress in improving sustainability goals but also identifies trends that have taken a step backward. The survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive among 1,015 U.S. and 555 Canadian business professionals and 2,114 U.S. adults age 18 and over.

Infection Control Today spoke with Cindy Molko, CLLM, RLLD, director of linen and central services at Mayo Clinic - Saint Mary's Hospital in Rochester, Minn. about key issues facing laundry and central sterile professionals related to infection prevention.

New research from the University of Southampton has shown that copper can prevent horizontal transmission of genes, which has contributed to the increasing number of antibiotic-resistant infections worldwide.

According to a team of Penn State entomologists, biopesticides -- naturally occurring microorganisms -- might provide an answer to the bed bug problem. Bed bugs need blood meals for growth and development throughout their life cycle. Increased travel, widespread insecticide resistance and changes in management practices have caused a resurgence in those insects throughout North America and Europe. Compounding the problem are concerns about the safety of using traditional chemicals in the domestic environment.

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) affect an estimated 1.7 million individuals and result in 99,000 deaths annually in American hospitals. With its role in hand washing accepted as perhaps our most reliable means for reducing HAI risk, hospital tap water has also been recognized as a source of such infections. Peer-reviewed literature has demonstrated that hospital tap water contains microbial pathogens, and that biofilm in water systems resists disinfection and delivers pathogenic organisms to the point of care. At-risk patients are susceptible to infection through direct contact, ingestion, and inhalation of waterborne pathogens. Systemic water treatment technologies reduce levels of recognized waterborne pathogens; however, they cannot eradicate biofilm within healthcare facility plumbing. Existing point-of-use (POU) filtration technologies have been reported to interrupt clinical outbreaks of infection due to recognized waterborne pathogens in the health care environment, and can represent a critical component of a comprehensive infection control strategy, particularly when targeted for patients at high risk.