Development of High Quality Water-soluble Infection Control Bags for Domestic Use

Infection control and minimising the risk of hospital acquired infection is a major concern for healthcare facilities world-wide. Contaminated hospital and care home linen poses a particularly high infection risk, as pathogens can adhere to clothes and traditional plastics such as polyethylene for long periods and can be transported into 'lower risk' areas such as the domestic home.

The preferred method to reduce contamination risks relating to infectious laundry is to use water soluble laundry bags in a hot wash cycle to negate the need for debagging when loading industrial washing machines.

Standard issue 'alginate' water-soluble laundry bags are designed for solubility rather than to be functional. They can be difficult to open, can split in service due to weak seals and NHS protocols require 'double bagging' with polythene outers to get functionality. The use of starch and sodium alginate to aid processability of the Polyvinylalcohol can often result in poor solubility characteristics of the inner sack leaving non-dissolved residues in the washing and cause blockages in washing machine outages.

Aquapak has developed a technology to produce a specially formulated and pure Polyvinylalcohol pellet (Hydropol(tm)) which allows standard bag manufacturers to make a super strong and quality water-soluble bag that can dissolve at controlled temperatures in both industrial and domestic washing machines. It does not use any additives which create residue and is safe and non-toxic in the effluent stream. The hot water-soluble bag is on the market where it is certified in Australia to be strong enough to carry cytotoxic linen, allowing recovery of contaminated linen that would otherwise be incinerated.

This project is to:

\* design a quality warm water-soluble laundry bag with inherent infection barrier which allows healthcare/care workers to bag up their work clothing and wash them domestically at 60oC with minimal handling.

\* develop a range of water-soluble hospital laundry bags, aprons, gowns and gloves, which are fit for purpose, improve infection control and dissolve during the hot wash cycle used by hospitals, industries and hotels.

\* run proof of concept studies on other thermoplastic forms of Hydropol(tm) (adhesive tapes, mouldings, fibres, to see if any can help the NHS).

The successful development of this project opens-up new markets for UK blown film manufacturers to supply soluble laundry bags and other PPE items to the NHS and wider healthcare system and thereby increase UK resilience during the COVID 19 pandemic, and the return to normality.