Guest Medical Ltd, the UK-based manufacturer and supplier of hospital disinfection products, recently carried out a study on the effect of their product Chlor-Clean on various Spradling vinyl-coated upholstery materials supplied by their UK distributor CTP Textiles. The study was instigated in order to determine what effects repeated applications of chlorine solutions would have on the vinyl-coated upholstery materials produced by Spradling and supplied to healthcare furniture manufacturers.
Healthcare workers are required, under UK Department of Health guidelines, to use chlorine products at a strength of 1,000ppm (0.1%) for environmental disinfection of surfaces, in order to combat contamination from harmful micro-organisms such as Clostridium difficile, MRSA, VRE and Acinetobacter etc. However, many healthcare workers are concerned about damage to furniture and fabrics from chlorine products, hence the reason for this study.
Chlor-Clean is used at 1,000ppm (0.1% or one tenth of the strength of ordinary domestic bleach) and, when used correctly, has been found not to cause damage to stainless steel, enamel bed frames, commodes or mattress covers.
The tests carried out by Guest Medical on four Spradling vinyl-coated product ranges (SIERRA, CONTOUR, SILVERTEX BS, and VALENCIA BS) used Chlor-Clean tablets in a solution of 1,000ppm (0.1%) and 10,000ppm (1%), both tested against a control of ordinary local tap water. Daily applications of these solutions (including the plain tap water) were made under controlled conditions to sample pieces of each of the vinyl-coated products over a period of 12 weeks and 1 day, totalling 366 applications per sample piece. This simulated a daily cleaning regime over a one year period. However, in practice vinyl upholstery is normally only cleaned with disinfection in exceptional cases of infection for short periods of time, and therefore this simulation would be the equivalent of applications applied over 3-4 years. With the 1% solution applications (ten times the normal solution) this would be the equivalent of daily applications over a 10-year period.
After a total of 366 applications, no detrimental chemical or physical effect was observed in any of the samples treated with either of the Chlor-Clean solutions. Neither was there any evidence of bleaching or loss of colour. The Guest Medical report therefore concludes that use of Chlor-Clean at the recommended concentration of 1,000ppm did not result in any detrimental effect on the Spradling vinyl-coated upholstery materials supplied by CTP Textiles for this study.
Click here for full details of the Guest Medical test report.