HEALTH & SAFETY
NEW TECHNOLOGY DISINFECTS MASKS AND GOWNS IN SECONDS conventional central disinfecting approaches.
THE SYSTEM - PROTECT THE MEDICAL WORKERS; PROTECT THE HOSPITALS There are plenty of these conventional centralised sterilizing chambers available, especially in countries like South Korea and China, however no coherent system has yet been developed to re-use PPE equipment as these countries faced the COVID 19 pandemic earlier than the UK and they generally produce the fabrics and materials in large quantities for the rest of the world – they themselves thus never faced the PPE shortage as acutely as in the UK.
M
ost personal protection equipment, e.g. medical gowns and masks, are designed to be disposable, often because the cost to dispose is less than the cost to clean. However, during a pandemic, this disposable system fails to deliver a workable solution without a proper system in place. Many public hospitals are not able to perform scheduled surgeries, too much contaminated waste results from disposable PPE and there are simply not enough PPE stocks/ supply to adequately protect our medical workers. Now new Aquila technology combines the effectiveness of UV with the cleaning power of plasma to disinfect masks and gowns in a matter of minutes without the need to send them off site. PPE equipment can be disinfected more regularly than with central disinfecting systems and so helps to prevent cross-contamination. The Aquila disinfecting system is highly cost effective, easy to operate, requires little maintenance and does not require further logistic overheads of storing and transporting re-used PPE equipment. The system is uniquely friendly to the environment with no chemicals being used – it has no extra costs and is very low maintenance. The Aquila system protects medical workers by disinfecting his/her mask every time they take a break without degradation to the mask material - so the masks can be disinfected in less than a minute. This means that medical workers can effectively “refresh” their masks between shifts giving them greater comfort and protection. This unique solution allows medical workers to safely extend the use of their PPE rather than a collecting disposed PPE to be centrally disinfected. Re-use of PPE equipment has not been done before due the nature of the products, which are generally meant to be disposable. However, the COVID 19 pandemic has shown us that this type of use for PPE equipment is not appropriate or effective in a global shortage situation when PPE is needed most.
EFFECTIVENESS AND SPEED OF THE DISINFECTING MACHINES
Other projects to disinfect PPE equipment have been found to take a long time while chemicals are likely to be used as the key cleaning agent. The Aquila disinfectant system has been designed to do the same job in minutes for medical gowns and under a minute for masks by using monochromatic UV light as UVGI (Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation) which has been proven to effectively kill bacteria and viruses. Research have shown even resistant bacteria e.g. MRSA and influenzas and TB viruses can be effectively eliminated using this light. In terms of safety, this frequency of light wave has also been proven to be harmless to humans since it cannot penetrate the eye or skin - so is safe to use in a relatively open environment. This high intensity UVGI is monochromatic 222 nm UV light is proven to kill viruses and bacteria without harming humans and can therefore be used in areas where medical workers remove their PPE equipment while they are taking a break. Aquila are presently developing a working prototype for disinfecting masks, with a larger machine to follow - aimed at processing of gowns, incorporating a unique design of disinfectant chamber to ensure thorough cleaning and supported with software to personally identify each individual mask and gown. It is clearly important to ensure that each person gets their own items back - so no one has to wear someone’s else’s mask or gown.
In order to ensure every part of a gown is disinfected Aquila use ionised air vortex technology which inflates the gown so that every surface is exposed to the UV disinfecting light. Areas which are generally not exposed e.g. folds of a gown etc, receive both high intensity UVGI and plasma exposure to ensure a complete disinfection in a minute, rather than hours as required with
18 JULY/AUGUST 2020 | FACTORY&HANDLINGSOLUTIONS
The Aquila system allows a medical worker to significantly extend the use of their PPE without compromises but rather with better protection and convenience. By accomplishing this, the large quantities of waste and the strain on logistics for PPE is immediately relieved.
With the Aquila system, hospitals are more prepared to face this, or any new pandemic by enabling total segregation of areas for the pandemic patients, it also allows a hospital to function with more “normalcy”. The system also allows specialist doctors to enter and leave the pandemic wing of the hospital to treat pandemic patients with pre-existing conditions providing greater safety to the doctor and eliminating/ reducing cross contamination to other parts of the hospital – although of course while the system disinfects the PPE, it cannot limit the spread of a biological contaminant carried in other forms or other mediums.
Aquila® and Alkimos® are registered brands owned and developed by Taste International Ltd.
Aquila
www.aquilaglove.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54
