Steam Cleaners Wipe Out MRSA With a Level of Performance Chemical Disinfectants May Never Achieve

Non-toxic TANCS®-equipped steam cleaners are lab tested and scientifically proven to produce better results than traditional disinfectants a leading nationwide marketer of vapor steam cleaning systems announces. "This is significant because according to the Integrated Benefits Institute exposure to cleaning chemicals is the largest contributing risk factor for occupational illness and injury," says V. K. Dunlop of Chicago-area 1-800-GO-VAPOR.com.

Steam cleaners equipped with Ladybugs proprietary patented Thermo Accelerated Nano Crystal Sanitation technology, called TANCS®, qualify as disinfection devices for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Using a simplified water-only protocol, TANCS®-equipped steam cleaners are suitable for cleaning, disinfecting and deodorizing many surfaces in healthcare settings such as hospitals, physician and dental offices, animal and outpatient clinics, laboratories, nursing homes and ambulances.

"Recent testing conducted by Antimicrobial Test Laboratories demonstrated rapid destruction of the NDM-1 strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria using TANCS®-equipped steam cleaners," says Dunlop.

According to Benjamin Tanner, PhD, president of Antimicrobial Test Laboratories, "The studies we conducted show that the steam vapor device can eradicate NDM-1 Klebsiella on a hard surface within just 2 seconds of contactmuch faster than traditional disinfectants."

Earlier testing by Antimicrobial Test Laboratories found that TANCS®-equipped steam cleaners wipe out the MRSA superbug in seconds. "A 99.9999 percent reduction of MRSA and VRE on surfaces within 5 seconds is a level of performance that chemical disinfectants may never achieve," Tanner says.

When a steamer with TANCS® is turned on, the water and minerals pass through the boiler, where the heat converts the water to superheated steam. Before the steam exits the boiler, the crystal structure of the decomposing minerals is modified, allowing the steam to carry these energized crystals to the surface of what is being cleaned. The result is a process that destroys microorganisms almost instantly while inhibiting the growth of new biofilm, or microorganism colonies, as the change in crystal structure combined with the superheated steam leaves no place for biofilms to attach.

TANCS® technology comes standard with the Ladybug Tekno 2350 steam cleaner and is available as an option with the Ladybug XL2300 steam cleaner, sometimes referred to as the Ladybug XLT2300 steam cleaner, and the Ladybug 2200S steam cleaner. All TANCS®-equipped steamers achieve a greater kill rate in 3 seconds than a 20-minute exposure to bleach.

"Scientific studies have found that biofilms can be up to 1,000 times more resistant to biocide inactivation than are suspended microbes," says Chuanwu Xi, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Health at the University of Michigan. "It is extremely difficult to get rid of biofilms and kill them. The efficacy of the steam vapor system is important because even strong chemical disinfectants such as bleach when allowed 20 minutes of dwell time did not achieve the same degree of kill that the TANCS®-equipped unit accomplished in 3 seconds."