Browse Topic: Disinfection
Sterilization plays a vital role in the use of medical devices. Prior to the 1980s, most medical products were reusable and required sterilization or disinfection between uses. The advance of contagious diseases has raised some concerns over the risks of reusable medical devices, spurring the medical device manufacturing industry to develop disposable, single-use versions of many medical instruments.
This recommended practice is intended to provide general guidelines for the selection and proper use of cleaning and disinfecting product characteristics acceptable for use on vehicle interiors and exterior touch points (cleaning before disinfecting being best practice in general for vehicles, as with other situations), and the effectiveness of the disinfecting products with certain characteristics, as well as indicating the product characteristics that will not cause damage to those surfaces.
To reduce hospital-associated infections caused by microorganisms, medical devices are typically cleaned and disinfected with chemical disinfectant solutions, including disinfecting wipes. Disinfectant use increased markedly during the COVID-19 pandemic. These disinfectant formulations tend to be comprised of an active ingredient, a solvent or aqueous carrier solution, and additional constituents that enhance the formulation’s properties.
Robots can do many things but they cannot open a door and go through the doorway. Researchers have solved this problem in three-dimensional digital simulations and are building an autonomous robot that can do just that. This simple advance in independence represents a huge leap forward for helper robots that vacuum and disinfect office buildings, airports, and hospitals.
Many of today’s cutting-edge medical technologies utilize advanced sensors to help healthcare specialists provide unprecedented levels of care. Advanced systems and innovative methods allow for improved real-time data and more comprehensive evaluation of the patient’s treatment and overall health; this is true for all facets of medical care — preventive, diagnostic, therapeutic, and overall assessment. With increased use of electronic monitoring technologies also comes the need to protect such sensors and other electronic components from anything that could compromise their performance. Parylene conformal coatings, for example, are often used to protect sensors from environments that can affect their performance over time. Whether they need to withstand potential exposure to simple humidity, pharmaceuticals, or even harsh cleaning and disinfection solutions, long-term sensor performance and reliability remains essential.
The fuel supply chain faces challenges associated with microbial contamination symptoms. Microbial growth is an issue usually known to be associated with middle distillate fuels and biodiesel, however, incidents where microbial populations have been isolated from unleaded gasoline storage tanks have also been recently reported. Alcohols are employed as gasoline components and the use of these oxygenates is rising, especially ethanol, which can be a renewable alternative to gasoline, as well. Despite their alleged disinfectant properties, a number of field observations suggests that biodeterioration could be a potential issue in fuel systems handling ethanol-blended gasoline. For this reason, in this study, the effect of alcohols on microbial proliferation in unleaded gasoline fuel was assessed. Ethanol (EtOH), iso-propyl alcohol (IPA) and tert-butyl-alcohol (TBA) were evaluated as examples of alcohols utilized in gasoline as oxygenates. Two different commercial grades of unleaded gasoline were employed in the study, namely a standard (U) and a high octane grade (SU) according to European market nomenclature. The gasoline samples were blended with EtOH, IPA and TBA at various mixing ratios, the resulting blends were contaminated with uncharacterized "bottoms-water" of known microbial activity and the resulting microcosms were stored for a certain period of time. During storage the microbial growth was monitored by utilizing a quantitative microbiological method and alterations in some quality parameters of the stored fuel blends were also examined.
O-phthalaldehyde (OPA) is a high-level disinfectant commonly used, for example, for sterilization of heat-sensitive medical instruments; it demonstrates effective microbicidal activity against a wide range of microorganisms (including mycobacteria, gramnegative bacteria, and spores). On the International Space Station (ISS), to achieve thermal control and maintain components at acceptable temperatures, systems that produce waste heat need to have that heat transferred from the ISS to space. To accomplish this, the ISS has an Internal Active Thermal Control System (IATCS) — a water-based system that works in conjunction with the EATCS (External ATCS), an ammoniabased system — to facilitate this heat transfer process.
A concept for a unique zero-g condensing heat exchanger that has an integral ozone-generating capacity has been conceived. This design will contribute to the control of metabolic water vapor in the air, and also provide disinfection of the resultant condensate, and the disinfection of the air stream that flows through the condensing heat exchanger.
Commercial uses for ultraviolet (UV) light are growing, and now a new kind of LED under development at The Ohio State University could lead to more portable and low-cost uses of the technology. The patent-pending LED creates a more precise wavelength of UV light than today’s commercially available UV LEDs, runs at much lower voltages, and is more compact than other experimental methods for creating precise wavelength UV light. The LED could lend itself to applications for chemical detection, disinfection, and UV curing. With significant further development, it might someday be able to provide a source for UV lasers for eye surgery and computer chip manufacture.
Research being done at North Carolina State University will allow the development of energy-efficient LED devices that use ultraviolet (UV) light to kill pathogens such as bacteria and viruses. The technology has a wide array of applications ranging from drinking-water treatment to sterilizing surgical tools.
Two-electron reduction of oxygen to produce hydrogen peroxide is a much researched topic. Most of the work has been done in the production of hydrogen peroxide in basic media, in order to address the needs of the pulp and paper industry. However, peroxides under alkaline conditions show poor stabilities and are not useful in disinfection applications. There is a need to design electrocatalysts that are stable and provide good current and energy efficiencies to produce hydrogen peroxide under acidic conditions.
This report describes the design, assembly, and testing of a modified, re-circulating drip flow reactor to quantify the electrical, optical, and thermal performance of solid-state ultraviolet (UV) lighting and semi-conducting photocatalyst for potable water disinfection by advanced oxidation processes. The reactor test assembly incorporates high-output UV-A Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) with active thermal control to reject heat and generate reactive oxygen species from immobilized titanium dioxide attached to borosilicate glass in the laminar flow stream. Compared with UV-excimer and UV-mercury arc lamps, the UV-A LED system demonstrated excellent thermal stability and good electrical and optical performance.
A prototype of an electroporation system for sterilizing wastewater or drinking water has been developed. In electroporation, applied electric fields cause transient and/or permanent changes in the porosities of living cells. Electroporation at lower field strengths can be exploited to increase the efficiency of chemical disinfection (as in chlorination). Electroporation at higher field strengths is capable of inactivating and even killing bacteria and other pathogens, without use of chemicals. Hence, electroporation is at least a partial alternative to chlorination.
A $90 million AUS (Australian dollar) upgrade ($49 million USD) to the Cronulla Sewage Treatment Plant in Southern Sydney, Australia, was undertaken to meet the requirements of a growing population and to add advanced sewage treatment processes including ultraviolet disinfection. During the design phase, a cost-effective engineering solution needed to be developed for a new aeration system that provides air to the biological reactors. Design, Detail and Development, a division of Blenray Pty. Ltd., used ALGOR's piping design and analysis software, PipePak, to analyze modifications to the aeration system to ensure that the new design could withstand expected thermal strains. The initial design contained numerous, expensive stainless steel bellows to account for thermal expansion and contraction. The final design of the system replaced bellows with spiral-wound stainless steel, which saved $150,000 AUS ($81,800 USD) and helped to keep the project on budget. The system has been installed and is functioning successfully.
Long-term space flight missions will require high quality water to lessen the risk of crew infections and system deterioration. In water systems on earth, biofilms contribute to loss of water quality, causing corrosion, increased flow resistance and reduced heat transfer. Some bacteria grow more rapidly and become less susceptible to antimicrobial agents under conditions of microgravity, and humans may have weakened immunity with prolonged space flight. This study aimed to determine the effects of spaceflight and microgravity on biofilm formation by Burkholderia cepacia in water and microbial control by iodine. The results showed that B. cepacia formed biofilms when incubated in microgravity and in ground controls. Compared to rich medium or water, biofilms developed at similar densities in iodinated water. Thus, disinfection and maintenance of spacecraft water systems should take into account the difficulties of controlling attached bacteria, which are commonly encountered in earth-based systems.
Items per page:
50
1 – 50 of 89