UV Disinfection Room within the Healthcare Industry

Ultraviolet light’s use within the healthcare industry has grown tremendously in the past few years as a quick and effective method to reduce the risk of pathogen transmission and hospital acquired infections.  Most applications revolve around the use of portable UV-C systems disinfecting surgical suites, intensive care units, and patient rooms.  One of the more novel uses involves setting up a dedicated disinfection room where items can be brought in for disinfection.  This strategy can be used for the routine disinfection of wheelchairs, hospital beds, carts, and other large portable items.  These items that travel from room to room should be disinfected in between uses in order to further reduce the risk of transmission and infection.

Ultraviolet light is a quick method to provide line-of-sight disinfection to objects and surfaces, with treatment times typically between 1-5 minutes depending on the arrangement.  Off-the-shelf UV light fixtures are mounted according to a customized design based on a facility’s needs to ensure a well-balanced solution is implemented.

Similar systems are in place within vaccine production suites research facilities to disinfect incoming supplies.  Contact us to learn more about these inexpensive, custom solutions.

Decontaminating PC Lines in Food / Pharma

Many food and pharmaceutical processing plants work with dry powder products, which are conveyed throughout the facility in piping systems from vessel to vessel and into the finished product package.  These product conveyance (PC) lines need to be disinfected in a careful manner which ensures that they are completely dry before product is reintroduced.  If a liquid disinfectant is introduced, it can bind with residual product to form crusts and hard biofilms.   ClorDiSys uses dry, chlorine dioxide gas to decontaminate piping systems and has performed many successful treatments within both the food and pharmaceutical industries.

Chlorine dioxide gas works extremely well for this application because, as a gas, it is able to move freely through the piping system and all the bends and turns throughout.  Gasses do not condense or stick to surfaces like liquids and liquid based vapor methods would, they simply continue to travel down the line and fill up the entire system.  To speed this process up, a recirculation loop is traditionally set up to connect the inlet and outlet of the system and provide an airflow within the closed loop.  Chlorine dioxide gas is able to be accurately measured throughout the entire process, typically being measured at the very end of the loop upstream of the gas injection location.  This allows for excellent process control, as the decontamination process continues until the proper dosage has been met, rather than end after a preset time.  This allows the decontamination process to be validated to a particular dosage, which can be reliably and repeatably met every time.  As a process which can be validated, chlorine dioxide gas can be used as a clean break within the PC lines, allowing for a true microbial reset of the environment.

Another main benefit for the use of ClorDiSys dry generated chlorine dioxide gas comes at the end of the treatment. CD gas is safe to vent to the atmosphere, allowing tanks and piping systems to be vented to exhaust at the end of the cycle.  Our proprietary pure chlorine dioxide gas does not leave a residue, making it ideal for product contact surfaces such as PC lines.  For such a critical part of the production process, it is essential to use an effective sanitation method.  With treatment times ranging from 4-8 hours depending on the complexity, decontaminations can be implemented as part of scheduled downtimes and occur at varying frequencies to provide greater assurance that the product being conveyed is safe.

To learn more about PC Line Decontamination, join our webinar on August 19^th.

Using UV-C for Routine Disinfection within the Life Science Industry

Ultraviolet light disinfection technology is commonly used for the routine disinfection of rooms within the healthcare industry.  It is seen as a quick disinfection method for prominent surfaces within patient rooms, ICU units, and surgical suites. This same technology can be used within the life science industry to disinfect animal holding rooms, procedure rooms, and necropsy rooms quickly on a routine basis.

UV light is capable of providing high-level disinfection of viruses, bacteria, molds and spores.  UV light works faster the closer it is to the pathogen, as its strength (intensity) is higher closer to the light source.  It is a dry, residue-free disinfection process that is easy to perform and requires very little maintenance.  UV light does not penetrate well into cracks and crevices, and it doesn’t reflect or bounce off surfaces in a meaningful amount.  This leaves UV as a line-of-sight disinfection method who’s use should be focused on common touch points.  These locations are where contaminations are traditionally transferred, making a routine disinfection of these surfaces a worthwhile occurrence.

Within the life science industry, UV can be quickly and easily used to help disinfect animal holding rooms, necropsy rooms, gowning rooms, equipment passthroughs, procedure rooms and hallways.  When using our Torch UV system, visible surfaces within an 8 ft radius can be disinfected in under 2 minutes, depending on the organisms of concern.  For more information, read our UV Light Data Sheet or contact us at 908-236-4100 to learn more.