Personal Protective Equipment

A recent report from Textiles Intelligence in the United Kingdom indicates that smart textiles and nanotechnology will enhance the benefits of personal protective equipment (PPE) used to protect workers from occupational exposures, hazardous materials, and pathogens that trigger infectious diseases.

Items of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as gowns and gloves, as well as the unwashed hands of healthcare workers, are frequently contaminated with multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, which they say is more easily transmitted than previously thought.

Can aggressive isolation practices and contact precautions make a significant impact on infection rates?

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is continuing to ask members of the infection prevention and control community to comment on occupational exposure to infectious agents in healthcare settings.

Richard Whitley, MD, FIDSA, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), has written a letter to CDC director Thomas Frieden relating to the draft guidance, "Prevention Strategies for Seasonal Influenza in Healthcare Settings."

EVA (Evolutionary Air), the newest Powered Air-Purifying Respirator (PAPR) from Bullard, is now approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) with a combination chemical and particulate filter that protects users against organic vapors, chloride dioxide, chlorine, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride, sulfur dioxide and particulates at a high efficiency level.