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

感染控制和尽量减少医院获得性感染的风险是世界各地卫生保健机构关注的一个主要问题。受污染的医院和疗养院亚麻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聚乙烯等传统塑料上，并可以被运送到“风险较低”的区域，如家庭。减少与传染性衣物有关的污染风险的首选方法是在热洗循环中使用水溶性洗衣袋，从而在装载工业洗衣机时不需要除袋。标准问题的“海藻酸盐”水溶性洗衣袋的设计溶解度，而不是功能。它们很难打开，由于密封薄弱，在使用中可能会破裂，NHS协议要求用聚乙烯外层“双重装袋”来获得功能。使用淀粉和海藻酸钠来提高聚乙烯醇的加工性通常会导致内袋的溶解性差，在洗涤时留下不溶解的残留物，并导致洗衣机停机时堵塞。Aquapak开发了一种技术，生产一种特殊配方的纯聚乙烯醇颗粒（Hydropol），使标准袋制造商能够制造出超强的高质量水溶性袋，可以在工业和家用洗衣机的控制温度下溶解。它不使用任何产生残留物的添加剂，在流出流中安全无毒。这种热水溶袋在澳大利亚的市场上得到了认证，它的强度足以携带细胞毒性亚麻，允许回收被污染的亚麻，否则这些亚麻将被焚烧。本项目旨在：设计一种高质量的温水水溶性洗衣袋，该洗衣袋具有固有的防感染屏障，使医护人员/护理人员能够将工作服装入袋中，并在60摄氏度的温度下进行最少的处理。*开发一系列适合用途的水溶性医院洗衣袋、围裙、长袍和手套，改善感染控制，并在医院、工业和酒店使用的热洗循环中溶解。*对其他热塑性形式的氢pol(tm)（胶带，模具，纤维，看看是否有任何可以帮助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开辟了新的市场，为NHS和更广泛的医疗保健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COVID - 19大流行期间的抵御能力，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.