COVID-19, laundry and the pathway to sterilisation and containment.
With the advent of a global pandemic now well underway, how do we contain and prevent the spread of COVID-19 through the clothes we wear and textiles we use every day. Now more than ever it is critical to review the transmission of virus particles via textiles and work to achieve full medical-grade sterilisation in our laundry, every day.
With more people being diagnosed with the novel coronavirus and an increasing number of people self-isolating, the need to properly disinfect your laundry is becoming essential. However, the NHS guidelines of washing your laundry for 5 minutes at 60 degrees celsius is wholly inadequate for eradicating the presence of COVID-19 virions. Clothes and linen are items that you are in contact with, twenty four hours a day and can transfer virus particles efficiently, for example from you sneezing into your elbow to then giving your loved ones a hug.
Sterilising Laundry:
Ozone is a high-tech, hard to use technology that has been around for almost half a century. It is used in hospitals to sterilise surgical rooms and equipment as well as in space vehicles and payloads destined for outer space. It is used for disinfection, sterilisation, deodourisation, long term-storage, and bleaching thanks to its strong oxidative ability. It is uncommon in domestic settings due to its dangerously volatile process.
- Ozone destroys viruses by attacking the nucleic acid core, thus damaging and denaturing the viral RNA. Without RNA, viruses are unable to replicate and therefore spread. After destroying these particles, ozone dissipates and leaves breathable oxygen as its only byproduct.
- The new coronavirus, COVID-19, is a RNA-based and enveloped virus.
- At higher concentrations, ozone also causes the oxidation of the viral envelope and therefore denaturing and elimination of the virus structure itself.
At Oxwash, our proprietary technology around ozone generation and delivery is a market leading process to provide full COVID-19 disinfection for our customers and their loved ones. Oxwash has been using ozone technology in high concentrations in the laundry process, from day one. This was implemented in order to wash pharmaceutical-grade lab coats, and to ensure the full eradication of bacterial, fungal, and viral agents in customers items as well as the removal of allergens such as grass pollen and traces of peanuts.
Oxwash is a space-age laundry and dry cleaning service. We wash using ozone in high concentrations causing sterilisation rather than using high temperatures or bleaching chemicals. This allows us to wash items at an average of 20 degrees celsius in order to maintain the integrity and enhance the longevity of the items we receive, whilst achieving award-winning cleanliness. We then return our customers items at a time of their choice, to the location of your choice. All whilst working towards zero net carbon emissions. The electric cargo bikes used to transport customers orders are also disinfected with adapted portable ozone generators that fully sterilise customers goods in transit and prevent any viral transmission.
Our mission is to provide the world’s best laundry, dry cleaning and ironing service, using our own space-age technology to achieve this. Please reach out to us if you would like any advice on tackling COVID-19 in your home or place of work and we would be delighted to help!
References:
Here are a selection of the many scientific studies, proving the efficacy and preferability of using ozone to destroy SARS, the most similar virus known to COVID-19.