Healthcare, Hygiene, and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Abstract

Healthcare hygiene and personal protective equipment in the medical textile sector cover a vast range from products used for disinfection such as disposable and reusable cleaning materials, through bed linen, furniture, fittings such as air filters and air treatment devices, to patient wear and staff clothing, and protective wear. The environment for which they are intended ranges from the operating theatre and the hospital ward, through to clinics and care homes. Each item of equipment needs to perform in its own particular way and, at the same time, to suit the requirements set by its intended environment. Many items perform well, but the disposable types take a heavy toll on the environment through greenhouse gas emissions and in cost terms also. Instead of adopting to use disposables because of habit, suggestions are made in this chapter on how to decide whether to use disposables, remanufactured, or re-useable items for a particular purpose. Advantages such as guaranteed availability are discussed, as are examples developed some time ago with the intention of removing the possibility of PPE supply crises. However, despite that preparatory work, insufficient attention was paid to it and desperate shortages did arise during the COVID-19 pandemic. Attention is also drawn to the need to stop using existing test methods unsuitable for workwear that continue to be used in attempts to try to validate compounds as antimicrobial agents for PPE. Despite an intense level of research work directed at a variety of interesting-looking compounds, when put into the operating environment they are ineffective in that setting. The value of the more stringent approach that should be adopted, one which already exists, is re-explained here in an attempt to get researchers to follow its guidance and put an end to the lazy adoption of easy but pointless testing regimes not designed for the environment experienced by the wearers of the protective workwear.