The Sterilisation of Blankets With Cetyl Trimethylamine Bromide

Blankets and air hygiene: a report of a trial of blanket disinfection

“…In a separate study, this possibility was examined by making daily sweep-plate counts from blankets that had been put into use immediately after disinfection by heat. They were heavily contaminated after one day's use and were indistinguishable from undisinfected blankets after eight days ( (Barnard, 1952;Blowers & Wallace, 1955). But, as already shown by Rubbo, Stratford & Dixson (1960), this residue is evidently unable to destroy bacteria in dry dust particles.…”

“…A similar ward was equipped with un-disinfected woollen blankets which served as controls. The under-blanket on each bed was sampled by the sweep-plate method of Williams (Blowers & Wallace, 1955) before the bed was occupied and then on each of the next 15 days after the admission of a patient.…”

Disinfection of woollen blanket

“…Methods for sampling populations ofmicro-organisms on fabrics based on sweeping (Blowers & Wallace, 1955), percussion (McQuade & Sutherland, 1960), and contact all suffer the disadvantages that the permissible upper limit of count is about 103 colonies, and that the sampling fractions are not known. The finding by Frisby (1957) that the sweep-plate method samples 1 in 104 bacteria found by maceration points to the inadequacies of the percussion, sweeping and contact methods for analysing processes of disinfection.…”

“…The finding by Frisby (1957) that the sweep-plate method samples 1 in 104 bacteria found by maceration points to the inadequacies of the percussion, sweeping and contact methods for analysing processes of disinfection. It follows that the reports that bactericides render blankets virtually sterile (Steingold et al 1954;Blowers & Wallace, 1955) were not necessarily correct. It should be pointed out, too, that natural contaminants include spores, and because these were not distinguished from vegetative cells, the data of the above authors cannot be regarded as measures of the efficacy of the agents they examined, these agents (quaternary ammonium and non-ionic detergents) usually being regarded as virtually non-sporicidal.…”

“…Although boiling of blankets on a large scale has been routine practice for several years at hospital laundries in Australia (Cowling, 1959;Standards Association of Australia, 1962), and boiling has the advantage that mycobacteria may be destroyed, it has not yet been universally accepted in other countries. In view of this and the observation that conventional laundering with soap is very ineffective in removing bacteria (Blowers & Wallace, 1955;Frisby, 1957;Ravenholt, Baker, Wysham & Giedt, 1958;Schwabacher, Salsbury & Fincham, 1958; Thomas, Liddell & Carmichael, 1958;Larkin, Bridson, Grieve & Gibson, 1961; Dickinson, Wagg & Carter, 1962) the potentialities of washing with bactericides warrant closer investigation. Bactericides have not proved as effective in laundering trials with new woollen blankets as would be expected from the activities of the bactericides as measured by standard methods; the present paper is concerned with the possibility that this low efficiency of the bactericides may be due to their adsorption by the wool.…”