Development of High Quality Water-soluble Infection Control Bags for Domestic Use

感染控制和将医院获得性感染的风险降至最低是世界各地医疗机构的主要关切。受污染的医院和疗养院亚麻制品具有特别高的感染风险，因为病原体可以长时间附着在衣服和传统塑料(如聚乙烯)上，并可以转移到家庭等风险较低的地区。降低与感染性洗衣相关的污染风险的首选方法是在热洗周期中使用水溶性洗衣袋，以避免在装载工业洗衣机时去掉衣服上的标签。标准版本的水溶洗衣袋是为溶解而设计的，而不是功能性的。它们可能很难打开，可能会因密封薄弱而在使用中分裂，NHS协议需要使用聚乙烯外罩进行‘双重包装’才能获得功能。使用淀粉和海藻酸钠来辅助聚乙烯醇的加工性通常会导致内袋的溶解特性较差，在洗涤过程中留下不溶解的残留物，并在洗衣机停机时造成堵塞。Aquapak开发了一项技术，可以生产一种特殊配方的纯聚乙烯醇颗粒(Aqupoltm)，使标准袋制造商能够生产出超坚固且高质量的水溶袋，可以在工业和家用洗衣机中在受控温度下溶解。它不使用任何会在流出物中产生残留物的添加剂，而且是安全无毒的。热水袋在澳大利亚市场上被认证为足够坚固，可以携带细胞毒性亚麻布，允许回收受污染的亚麻布，否则将被焚烧。该项目旨在：\*设计一种具有固有感染屏障的优质温水可溶洗衣袋，允许医护人员在60摄氏度的温度下将工作服打包并在国内以最少的处理进行洗涤。\*开发一系列适合医院使用的水溶性洗衣袋、围裙、长袍和手套，改善感染控制，并在医院使用的热洗周期中溶解。工业和酒店。\*对其他热塑性形式的氢化物(Tm)(胶带、线条、纤维，看看是否有任何形式可以帮助NHS)进行概念验证研究。该项目的成功开发为英国吹膜制造商打开了新的市场，为NHS和更广泛的医疗系统提供可溶性洗衣袋和其他个人防护用品，从而提高英国在19号冠状病毒大流行期间的应变能力，并恢复正常。

Infection control and minimising the risk of hospital acquired infection is a major concern for healthcare facilities world-wide. Contaminated hospital and care home linen poses a particularly high infection risk, as pathogens can adhere to clothes and traditional plastics such as polyethylene for long periods and can be transported into 'lower risk' areas such as the domestic home.The preferred method to reduce contamination risks relating to infectious laundry is to use water soluble laundry bags in a hot wash cycle to negate the need for debagging when loading industrial washing machines.Standard issue 'alginate' water-soluble laundry bags are designed for solubility rather than to be functional. They can be difficult to open, can split in service due to weak seals and NHS protocols require 'double bagging' with polythene outers to get functionality. The use of starch and sodium alginate to aid processability of the Polyvinylalcohol can often result in poor solubility characteristics of the inner sack leaving non-dissolved residues in the washing and cause blockages in washing machine outages.Aquapak has developed a technology to produce a specially formulated and pure Polyvinylalcohol pellet (Hydropol(tm)) which allows standard bag manufacturers to make a super strong and quality water-soluble bag that can dissolve at controlled temperatures in both industrial and domestic washing machines. It does not use any additives which create residue and is safe and non-toxic in the effluent stream. The hot water-soluble bag is on the market where it is certified in Australia to be strong enough to carry cytotoxic linen, allowing recovery of contaminated linen that would otherwise be incinerated.This project is to:\* design a quality warm water-soluble laundry bag with inherent infection barrier which allows healthcare/care workers to bag up their work clothing and wash them domestically at 60oC with minimal handling.\* develop a range of water-soluble hospital laundry bags, aprons, gowns and gloves, which are fit for purpose, improve infection control and dissolve during the hot wash cycle used by hospitals, industries and hotels.\* run proof of concept studies on other thermoplastic forms of Hydropol(tm) (adhesive tapes, mouldings, fibres, to see if any can help the NHS).The successful development of this project opens-up new markets for UK blown film manufacturers to supply soluble laundry bags and other PPE items to the NHS and wider healthcare system and thereby increase UK resilience during the COVID 19 pandemic, and the return to normality.