Wool Favoured For Hospital Blankets

Press, Volume C, Issue 29681, 27 November 1961, Page 6

Wool Favoured For Hospital Blankets

Hospital blankets of pure wool are least likely to transmit infection, according to the leader of an Australian research team studying crossinfection in hospital wards. In an article written for the magazine of the Association of Institutional Laundry Managers. Mr T. A. Pressley of the division of protein chemistry fbe Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, says that wool blankets and uncovered bedspreads - are poor disseminators of bacteria and are highly satisfactory tor hospital ward fist. Cross-infection in hospitals is a worldproblem that "still defies medical science, says Mr Pressley. It is well established that hospital dust is infected and infective, but people—staff, other patients and visitors—are the primary carriers of cross-infection. I’iere are fibres that are carried on an air stream, but

element of ' surprise was lest, tests have shown that wool is unable to float it» the air for any significant time. Fibres fall quickly to the floor and are eliminated as a health hazard. The reseatxli team trapped fibres at various levels in a hospital ward. Fibres, mainly cotton, were pienitful at floor .level, a quarter as numerous at bed height, and almost non-existent above six feet Bacteria, however, werealmost evenly distributed from floor to ceiling, including several virulent strains of infectious gernu resistant to anti-biotics. Any wool fibres, Mr Pressley says were almost evenly distritrated at floor level. Chemical anti-shrink processes have made it easier tc care for wool blankets in hospitals, he continues. AllWool, shrink-resfstant blan kets have been through 30f washings, dryings and arr still in serviceable condition "These large-scale practical results over a long tern refute very definitely th< claim still made that wool i unsuitable for hospital use because it cannot be washer' readily under conditions tha destroy bacteria,” be says. Mr Pressley concludes b? mentioning ,two other features that commend woo' blankets for hospital usethe natural characteristic of pure wool to resist burning and the recent development of moth-resistance. Wool is normally slowburning or self-extinguishing he says. A lighted cigarette on a wool blanket will not even scorch the sheet underneath. Manufacturers now produce a blanket with permanent resistance to moths, or an emulsion can be added in rinse water before storage.