ENVIRONMENTAL DISINFECTION
Technologies at the service of the community
1. Introduction
Speaking of disinfection means to define that set of operations aimed at neutralizing pathogenic microorganisms existing outside the human organism, animal, etc ... and to pursue, consequently, the total destruction. Wanting to give a definition "disinfection is the set of measures designed to destroy pathogens of contamination in the external environment, that is, sites on inanimate objects.";
bactericidal
Public and private premises, companies and communities of various kinds and not only, are environments subject to this type of intervention because they must comply with very strict hygiene rules in respect of your health and that of other people. The environments must first of all be always clean and hygienically uncontaminated.
The regulations on the protection of health and safety at work (Legislative Decree 81/2008) require the heads of the structure to carry out periodic checks to verify the hygienic conditions of the environment and to intervene to remove substances harmful to human health ( Annex IV, point 1.9.1.4.-1.9.1.5), responding personally to any negligence in this sense (Article 68 paragraph 15).
The environmental disinfection studied by E2S3-Dimensione Service is of guaranteed effectiveness, requires reduced intervention times, does not involve any risk of damage to electronic equipment and any danger to people. Naturally, the environments undergoing treatment must not contain people or patients.
Effectiveness and efficiency: not all surfaces are easily accessible, especially the hidden ones that become a reservoir of microorganisms; the systems used are mostly based on wet spraying of disinfectant products, which has a certain environmental impact, leaving the surfaces treated wet; they also require that the rooms subject to reclamation must be sealed, preventing their immediate usability (long post-disinfection times);
This procedure allows the complete disinfection of simple and complex environments, leaving a space completely disinfected and immediately accessible without further intervention.
The microbiological agents present in the air are airborne in the form of bioaerosol, bound to dust, liquid particles or other naturally occurring contaminants (oily emulsions, wood dust, etc.), with consequent risk, for workers, of exposure by inhalation, by contact with contaminated surfaces and objects or by ingestion.
The goal of disinfection is to stop the development of "microbism", a term with which we indicate the pollution of the premises and the atmosphere confined by harmful elements or parasites, especially viruses, molds, schizomycetes, etc.
Cleaning, disinfection and sterilization are key measures to prevent the spread of infections. Despite this, in many health facilities one or other of these basic infection prevention and control interventions is lacking or the staff does not receive sufficient training in this regard.
Disinfection of environments is an activity that in recent years was necessary in the event of contamination of biological origin very important, in the event of pandemics. It was in fact widely used some years ago for the onset of SARS.
We believe that it should be used not only in the case of ongoing events but also and above all as a preventive activity in the fight against nosocomial infections and in areas of high attendance or production of foodstuffs and pharmaceutical products.
Environmental Sanitization is an activity dedicated to protecting, considering that it is:
fungicide
sporicidal
virucidal.
2. Where and why to intervene
Particularly in public and private health where hospital infections represent an important problem in terms of ethical, safety and economic profiles. Suffice it to say that infections that occur within hospital facilities cause more deaths per year than those caused by traffic accidents. In fact, on inert environmental surfaces, microorganisms that cause infections (bacteria like Enterococcus, Escherichia, Klebsiella, Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, Staphylococcus) can survive by feeding the chain of contagion: environment-operator-patient.
In response to the growing concern about nosocomial and influenza virus infections, the working group coordinated by Dimensione Service proposes the Environmental disinfection service to companies and structures dedicated to hospitality.
3. Regulations and guidelines
The guidelines of INAIL (National Institute for Assistance at Workers against the accident on works place), "Microbiological monitoring in work environments, sampling and analysis", Edition 2010, provides that for biological agents, the difficulty of assessing the extent of exposure makes the measurement of environmental contamination is a determining factor in the assessment of the existence of biological risk. Moreover, unlike what happens with chemicals, in the case of biological agents, no limits of contamination that can be used as threshold values have been defined; therefore, there are no objective references on the basis of which to manage the results obtained from environmental monitoring.
4. The chemical process of environmental sanitization
The method of environmental disinfection reduces the bacterial, viral and fungal charge on all surfaces, objects and everything in the room; the dry steam generated spreads homogeneously throughout the entire volume of the environment, even under and around the furnishings and on the medical devices.
Safe, fast, effective: a preventive intervention method against the danger of biological contamination of different origins. The environmental disinfection system revolutionizes the disinfection sector, expanding the possibility of benefiting from an extremely efficient, fast and low cost service to a large number of users.
In this context, the automatic SANISIM disinfection system was introduced, which uses a dry spraying technology of the SANISIM SOLUTION disinfectant product (self-produced) and is able to obtain high efficacy and efficiency in disinfection processes and to guarantee high safety and ease of use. 'use. Moreover, traditional cleaning methods have numerous limitations, in terms of:
- Safety: cleaning processes are operator-dependent, exposing them to the risk of inhalation of toxic products and skin irritation.
The active ingredient, based on stabilized hydrogen peroxide, thanks to a special high pressure dispenser is atomized into the environment in a dry form and comes into contact with each surface by breaking down the microbial and bacterial load. Every point reached by the air is also reached by the active principle, whatever its quality, nature or composition, resulting in a global disinfection of the environment and its contents, including furnishings and objects. The atomization process used does not generate humidity or residues of any kind and its degradation (more than 99%) occurs within a few minutes from the delivery itself.
Atomized hydrogen peroxide does not produce any corrosive effect on surfaces and equipment present in the treated environment as it generates a "dry mist"; therefore, computers and live equipment only benefit from such a process that does not exclude them, as is often done, by a traditional disinfection process.
The association between the speed and the outlet temperature of the product dispensed, determines the degradation of hydrogen peroxide in free radicals particularly oxidizing and short-lived. In microorganisms, due to their hydrophilic characteristics, an attraction effect occurs between the water molecule present in the solution which is fixed on the membrane of the bacteria, generating the formation of liquid peroxide crystals.
Our Hydrogen Peroxide, diluted in specific concentrations for the various uses, is particularly stable compared to what the market proposes through other competitors; this causes an inhibiting effect of the growth of microorganisms on the surfaces of the treated environment, which will subsequently settle
The effectiveness of the described process qualifies the environmental disinfection as a preventive remedy to contain contagion.
5. Products for sanitization
In light of the above, research has shown that the hospital environment has a heavy impact on hospital infection rates. Disinfection methods currently available on the market are not sufficiently efficient and can not be used to spread and apply disinfectant products in all areas and surfaces, including medical instruments and equipment. As a consequence, infectious agents can quickly recontaminate the area in question.
The factors that determine the effectiveness of the treatment of environmental sanitization are: