Laundering of hospital staff uniforms at home

Coliform bacteria, fabrics, and the environment

“…The number of viable S aureus and environmental microorganisms were reduced on hospital staff uniforms after laundering combined with tumble drying or ironing. 18 In conclusion, this research has advanced the understanding of the interactions of bacteria and fabrics. Coliform bacteria can associate with fabrics in high numbers under the right conditions and appear to survive for extended periods of time on fabrics.…”

Compendium of Veterinary Standard Precautions for Zoonotic Disease Prevention in Veterinary Personnel: National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians: Veterinary Infection Control Committee 2015

“…When soiled clothing is laundered at home, it should be transported in a sealed plastic bag, kept separate from household laundry, emptied from the bag directly into a washing machine, and thoroughly machine dried after completion of the wash cycle. [162][163][164] 4. Spill Response and Decontamination Spills and splashes of potentially infective substances should be immediately contained with absorbent material (eg, paper towels, sawdust, or cat litter).…”

Implementing sustainable laundering procedures for textiles in a commercial laundry and thus decreasing wastewater burden

“…On the other hand, it is important not to decrease the washing agents to such measures that the laundering procedures do not have a sufficient cleaning and disinfection effect. It is well known that textiles contaminated due to inappropriate laundering procedures are a possible vehicle for nosocomial outbreaks involving bacterial, viral and fungal infections [4e6, 10,12,13]. Therefore, when decreasing the amounts of washing agent it is necessary to control temperature to ensure an appropriate disinfection effect of laundering [7,13].…”

“…It is well known that textiles contaminated due to inappropriate laundering procedures are a possible vehicle for nosocomial outbreaks involving bacterial, viral and fungal infections [4e6, 10,12,13]. Therefore, when decreasing the amounts of washing agent it is necessary to control temperature to ensure an appropriate disinfection effect of laundering [7,13]. Because clean, bright and undamaged textiles are an important part especially for the catering industry, the laundering quality determined by the secondary laundering effects (whiteness quality, chemical in mechanical wear and incineration residue) is also an important factor which cannot be ignored [17].…”