Survival of Microorganisms in Laundered Polyester-Cotton Sheeting1

Laundry hygiene-how to get more than clean

“…Although it is difficult to differentiate between the Sinner circle impact factors in many of the existing studies it is obvious that a higher washing temperature increases the logarithmic reduction (LR) of micro-organisms on a textile surface during laundering. Wiksell et al (1973) observed an LR increase of c. 2Á5 when shifting the temperature from 24°C to 68°C while Walter and Schillinger (1975) found the LR to be increased by 3 by raising the temperature from 38°C to 49°C. These studies were followed by many others showing a considerable effect of temperature on the reduction of micro-organisms (Arild et al 2003;Lichtenberg et al 2006;Bellante et al 2011;Linke et al 2011;Honisch et al 2014).…”

Influence of Sampling Site and other Environmental Factors on the Bacterial Community Composition of Domestic Washing Machines

“…In order to characterize the microbial colonization of domestic washing machines, several studies analysed the microbial community of household washing machines and its potential influence on laundry [5,9,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. For instance, Nix and co-workers [23] addressed the prevalence of prokaryotic and eukaryotic microorganisms at the rubber door seal and the detergent drawer using pyrosequencing of ribosomal RNA and ITS genes.…”

The Use of Disinfectants in the Home

“…They also concluded that little was gained by the addition of hypochlorite to the wash water except where temperatures below >45 "C were used. Wiksell et al (1973), in contrast, demonstrated appreciable survival of organisms such as Staph. aureus and Bacillus stearothermophilus on various fabrics when laundry temperatures of up to 68 "C were used.…”

“…They concluded, however, that for routine decontamination of laundry, a hot water and detergent machine-wash followed by thorough drying is probably adequate for most purposes. It has been demonstrated (McNeil & Chopper 1962;Wiksell et al 1973;Buford et al 1977) that appreciable numbers of organisms may be transferred from contaminated to uncontaminated linen when these are included in the same wash cycle and also between linens washed in separate cycles where transfer of contamination is probably effected by organisms adhering to the washer surfaces. Although the studies by Walter & Schillinger (1975) indicate little value in the use of hypochlorites, Wilkhoff et al (1971) and Buford et al (1977) have demonstrated that addition of quaternary ammonium, phenolic disinfectants or hypochlorites to machine-wash cycles will produce significantly greater reduction in the numbers of viable organisms present in fabrics and in the water used for washing them than can be achieved by use of hot water and detergent alone.…”