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Time to Call It Quits on Quats?
Mar 1, 2010 12:00 PM
New environmental questions are emerging about a traditional foodservice sanitizing agent – quaternary ammonium compounds.
When Frank Miller, director of hospitality services at the University of Western Ontario, received a visit from a representative of the local wastewater treatment plant last fall, he soon had a lot of questions about the request the visitor had come to make.
“They wanted us to eliminate our use of quats [shorthand for quaternary ammonium compounds, usually including benzalkonium chloride as their active ingredient] to ensure they would no longer enter our campus drainage system,” says Miller.
“And it wasn’t just us — they have also been approaching hospitals and other large institutional operations in the London (Ontario) region with the same request. It was an issue that had never been raised with us before, and we’ve been using these chemicals as a sanitizer for years to sanitize everything from forks to tables.”
Save the Daphnia
In fact, quaternary ammonium compounds are a very common low level disinfectant. They are distributed to and widely used in the foodservice industry for environmental cleaning, at least partly because they do not have many of the drawbacks associated with chlorine, alcohol and other disinfectants.
Miller’s department investigated the request further, calling upon the expertise of two chemists on staff with the university’s Health & Safety department. “We quickly discovered that the request was legitimate,” says Miller. “Research shows that while quats are extremely effective at killing bacteria, they can also be harmful to the environment.”
Tony Van Rossum, an environmental engineer in London’s wastewater treatment division, explains that typical wastewater treatment processes are only able to remove about 25 percent of the quat compounds that pass through a plant. “The rest end up in our river, where they sometimes reach concentrations that significantly exceed allowable standards.”
A standard water quality test used by the city (and also by the U.S. EPA) measures “chronic toxicity” of water by measuring its impact on daphnia magna, a microscopic insect, as well as on trout and other organisms. As quat levels had risen, these tests had indicated excessive chronic toxicity. The city chose what it saw as its most practical and cost-effective solution for addressing the problem: seeking to get local organizations, from the university to hospitals to chain restaurants, to reduce their use of the chemical.
Redesigned procedures
Back at the university, Miller’s department had been using the chemical in two primary applications. The first was as part of a two-bucket system for sanitizing tables, counters and similar surfaces; the second was as a rinse in “three sink” manual dishwashing applications.
Typically, staff had periodically tested the quat solution over the course of its use, discarding used solution down a wastewater drain when quat strength dropped below a specified ppm (part per million) threshold.
According to Barry Russell, who oversees the university housing department’s food handling and health and safety issues, “We estimated we were using over 600 liters of concentrated quat solution a year. So we set out to see if we could significantly reduce that usage level by changing our procedures.”
Those procedural changes were implemented after the 2010 New Year’s break and included moving to the use of spray bottles of sanitizer to disinfect tables and other surfaces, then allowing them to air dry, thus eliminating the need to dispose of used sanitizer solution. In the three sink application, half sinkfuls of sanitizer are now used, reducing the volume of used sanitizer that later has to be disposed of.
Russell believes the new procedures will cut the amount of quaternary compounds that the school disposes of by 75 percent or more.
“The university has taken this very seriously,” says the city’s Van Rossum, but he notes that it is a community problem that will require a community-wide response.
“We are trying to address the problem through education, rather than regulation,” he adds. “But if voluntary efforts don’t work, other approaches may be necessary to protect water quality.”
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ksmarketingteam
BioVigil Releases Second-Generation Hand Hygiene Monitoring System
PR Newswire
SANTA ROSA, Calif., March 16 /PRNewswire/ — BioVigil LLC has released the second generation of the BioVigil hand hygiene monitoring system. The innovative system enables hospitals to more effectively combat Hospital-Acquired Infections (HAIs) by dramatically increasing hand hygiene compliance among healthcare workers.
HAIs waste over $20-30 billion each year, with as many as one in ten hospital patients picking up a secondary infection while spending time in a hospital. Infections are particularly dangerous for patients recovering from surgery, with as many as 99,000 deaths per year in the United States alone attributed to HAIs.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), hand hygiene is the single most effective way to combat hospital-acquired infections. As a result, 34 states have implemented standards which require hospitals to improve on hand hygiene.
The second-generation BioVigil system incorporates innovative badge technology and related sensors to effectively monitor hand hygiene compliance in hospitals. The system verifies the use of hand sanitizer in every patient’s room, and records compliance data in a secure database.
“Our second-generation system solves the accuracy problems that are inherent in RF-based sensors,” explains Brian Sheahan, Chief Executive Officer for BioVigil LLC. “An RF-based system does not have the accuracy and sensitivity which our system offers. We know with 100% accuracy when a healthcare worker enters and exits a location. Our system is simple, cost-effective and saves lives.
“In addition, the BioVigil system uses an alcohol sensor on the ID badge of the healthcare worker, so that a nurse or doctor can simply enter a patient’s room, then use hand sanitizer while approaching the patient’s bed and interacting with the patient. We have been able to design a sensor network which makes the system highly user-friendly and patient-friendly. The bright green and red LEDs embedded in the ID badge enable other healthcare personnel and even patients to easily see whether a healthcare worker is in compliance.”
Mr. Sheahan noted that BioVigil completed an IRB-approved trial with VCU Medical Center during September 2009, validating the successful operation of its second-generation BV-140 technology. Dr. Michael Edmond of VCU Medical Center will be presenting results of the trial at the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) conference in Atlanta, GA on Sunday, March 21, 2010 at 11:45 a.m.
BioVigil (http://www.biovigil.org), based in Santa Rosa, California, has a number of patents which protect its proprietary approach at hand hygiene detection and reporting. The company has refined its unique approach to hand hygiene compliance over four years of development activity and repeated trials.
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ksmarketingteam
March 16, 2010NYC restaurants must now show their report cards
By SARA KUGLER Associated Press WriterNew York City’s 24,000 restaurants — from its internationally known eateries on down to its most modest pizza counters — will have to display large letter grades near their entrances indicating how clean they are under a system approved Tuesday.
The best will get an A, according to the system approved by the city Board of Health.
Officials say the grading system is designed to give potential customers instant access to information about where they are about to eat.
“The grade in the window will give you a sense of how clean the kitchen is, and it will give every restaurant operator an incentive to maintain safe, sanitary conditions,” Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said in a statement.
Some other cities use similar rating systems. Los Angeles grades its restaurants with A for scores of 90 to 100 percent, B for 80 to 89 percent and C for 70 to 79 percent. A restaurant that scores under 70 percent twice in a year is subject to closure.
The New York State Restaurant Association has called the system gimmicky and unfair.
“They’re doing a disservice to the public,” said Marc Murphy, a vice president of the association and the owner and chef at the Manhattan restaurants Landmarc and Ditch Plains.
He said the letter grading system will serve to embarrass restaurateurs without giving the public a true picture of the establishment’s cleanliness.
But New York officials say that after Los Angeles began its letter grading system for restaurants, the proportion of restaurants that met the highest standards rose from 40 percent to more than 80 percent.
Robert Bookman, counsel for the restaurant association, assailed the city’s claim that incidents of food-borne illness dropped in Los Angeles after the implementation of a similar system there, noting that that city had also simultaneously begun requiring restaurant staff to take food safety classes for the first time.
The details of New York’s system are still being finalized, but the proposal called for grades A through C, based on demerit points accumulated by violations.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he’d prefer to eat at a restaurant with an A.
“I think you’re going to find that most restaurants will get to the A status, which is the idea,” he said.
The health department says that most of the restaurants it inspects each year maintain good or excellent health conditions, but that about a quarter of them have “significant lapses in food-safety practices.”
Officials say that about 30 percent of the city’s restaurants would qualify for an A, 40 percent a B and 26 percent a C.
New York City’s restaurant inspection reports are already posted online, but officials said posting the information in restaurant doors and windows prevents diners from having to search for it.
The plan approved Tuesday — after a public hearing and monthlong open comment period — gives restaurants that receive grades lower than an A time to improve their sanitary conditions before they have to post anything.
For those eateries, the health department will return within a month to conduct a second inspection, and the second grade will be posted unless the restaurant operator contests it at the department’s administrative tribunal.
Those restaurants will be allowed to post a sign that says “grade pending” while the matter is being appealed.
The new regulations will not cover mobile food cars — arguably the facilities that New Yorkers view with the most suspicion when it comes to sanitation issues.
Daniel Kass, a deputy health commissioner, said the carts were being omitted for logistical reasons.
“We don’t always get to them. We don’t always know where they are,” Kass said.
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ksmarketingteam
March 18, 2010
Cruise liner hit again with illness returns to SC
By BRUCE SMITH Associated Press Writer
A cruise liner hit by an outbreak of intestinal illness for a third straight trip from South Carolina returned a day early Thursday as operator Celebrity Cruises brought in extra crew to scrub the ship down for three days.
The Celebrity Mercury arrived about 2 a.m. and passengers began disembarking as the sun rose over Charleston.
The cruise company reported 406 of the more than 1,800 passengers got sick after the ship’s March 8 departure. Thirteen of 857 crew members also got sick.
Hundreds of passengers got sick with the norovirus on two previous Mercury cruises this year from Charleston. The norovirus can spread quickly in closed quarters with symptoms including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramps.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the cause of the outbreak on the latest cruise has not yet been determined, but passengers reported symptoms including diarrhea and vomiting.
Linda McNeil, 61, of Hendersonville, N.C., got sick during the cruise but was better by the time the ship returned. She and her husband had been concerned before they left.
“Yes, yes we were, but it wasn’t going to keep us from going,” she said. “This was our first cruise so we were going to go and it didn’t discourage us from doing it again.”
Davis Lever, 81, and his wife Beth Lawton, 80, of Summerville, S.C., said they weren’t anxious about sailing on the Mercury. Neither were ill and both praised the crew.
“They just couldn’t have done more. They had clear plastic over all the food at the buffet line. You didn’t touch anything, they put stuff on your plate,” Lawton said. “At every doorway they had wipes or sprays.”
The couple has been on eight cruises and said the trip would not discourage them from going on a ninth.
When the first Mercury cruise returned Feb. 26, the vessel remained in port an extra day for cleaning. This time, the Mercury will remain three days for cleaning before it is scheduled to sail again Sunday.
Celebrity Cruises spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez said the line is bringing 50 additional crew members to Charleston to help clean and a local company will steam the carpets in all staterooms and public areas. Celebrity Cruises is owned by Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
CDC spokesman Ricardo Beato said the sailing could be delayed if government vessel sanitation officials or if the Celebrity Cruises staff feel there hasn’t been enough time to decontaminate.
South Carolina health officials have reported twice as many cases of norovirus in the state as normal this winter.
“It’s sort of infamous for sticking around,” said Dr. J. Michael Kilby, a Medical University of South Carolina professor who said the virus spreads easily in a closed environment like a ship.
“A whole slew of people can be sick in 48 hours because it has a short incubation period,” he said. The good news, if there is any, is that most people recover in a day or so.
But Kilby said the virus is tough to get rid of.
“Even the little bit of chlorine you find in the treated water we have in town and some swimming pools doesn’t seem enough to get it out of the environment,” he said. “It’s hard to know whether some passenger comes on board with it already or whether it is some place in the environment there already.”
The sailings by the Mercury marked the start of Charleston’s first year-round cruising season. There will be 67 cruise calls by various lines in the city this year. In the past, there had been only a handful of winter cruises.
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ksmarketingteam
I am listening to the The Janice Albokai Show – Big Ideas show by Janice Albokai on #BlogTalkRadio – http://tobtr.com/s/597780
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ksmarketingteam
Larry Kemp speaks out: Topic of concern; “Another Minority Classification”, how will it effect the Business Community? Watch it LIVE! http://www.wfaa.com/video/?nvid=399996
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ksmarketingteam
Disinfecting public places needs to be done on a regular basis! This is what happens to children when it’s not http://www.wfaa.com/swineflu/
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ksmarketingteam
September 7, 2009
Amid swine flu France kissing goodbye to ‘la bise’
By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press WriterIt’s a ubiquitous French tradition, as familiar as a baguette or an espresso at the neighborhood cafe. Now, “la bise,” the cheek-to-cheek peck that the French use to say hello or goodbye, has come under pressure from a globalized threat: swine flu.
Some French schools, companies and a Health Ministry hotline are telling students and employees to avoid the social ritual out of fear the pandemic could make it the kiss of death, or at least illness, as winter approaches.
Mainland France has so far only counted three swine flu deaths. The tally is worse in French southern hemisphere holdings now in winter, like the South Pacific island of Nouvelle Caledonie, with seven deaths and 35,000 cases overall, according to local officials.
Across France, authorities and school officials are taking few chances — while trying to avoid stirring panic when the academic year started last week. In recent months, a few schools in France have been temporarily shut after cases of swine flu emerged.
For kids in two schools in the town of Guilvinec, in France’s western Brittany region, the first lesson of the year came from local officials: no more cheek kisses to teachers or other students.
“I asked the children not to kiss anymore,” town mayor Helene Tanguy said by phone. “I felt that the protections sought — to wash hands regularly, not throw used handkerchiefs around, and not cough any old way — had no meaning if we let the kids keep kissing.”
“It seems we were the first town to do so,” she said. It’s just part of an effort to adopt new and more sanitary habits, and there’s no punishment involved for those who do exchange bises, she added.
As a playful alternative, some teachers in the town have set up “bise boxes”: Pupils slip heart-shaped greetings inside before they’re exchanged in class, Tanguy said.
Many in France see a threat to cherished customs.
“Swine flu has already changed our life,” read the headline of an article in Monday’s Le Parisien about banning the bise.
The national government isn’t calling for a ban. But the Health Ministry, on its swine flu phone hotline, recommends that people avoid “close contact — including shaking hands and giving the bise.”
A ministry Web site on the pandemic recommends avoiding “direct contact” with people, “not kissing, shaking hands or caressing the face” of others — especially sick people.
It advises keeping a one-meter (3 foot) buffer zone as a minimum, or wearing masks if that’s not possible. It doesn’t specifically mention la bise.
“These are recommendations, not requirements: People are free to do what they like,” said a hotline operator, who said he was not authorized to give his name. The press office for the ministry’s health service did not return calls seeking comment.
The government’s main thrust is to encourage people to wash their hands frequently, and to cough into their sleeves or tissues — not into their hands — when the urge is inescapable.
Some are going even further. City Hall officials in the western town of Coulaines said Mayor Christophe Rouillon issued an ordinance late last month that bans spitting in public — a less common custom in France — as a way to prevent the spread of germs linked to swine flu.
Other countries have also cracked down on kissing.
In April, the Health Minister in Lebanon — a former French colony that retains many cultural mores from its past ruler — urged people to avoid a similar cheek-kissing custom there.
Around the same time, Mexico — then the epicenter of the swine flu crisis — also urged people not to kiss each other on the cheek.
The swine flu virus has caused at least 2,837 deaths — including 625 last week alone — since it first appeared this year in Mexico and the United States, the World Health Organization said Friday. More than a quarter-million cases worldwide have been confirmed, it said.
The virus, known as H1N1, is airborne and is easily transmitted when people cough or sneeze. Most cases are mild and don’t require treatment to get better.
Outside Paul Baudry elementary school near Paris’ Champs-Elysees, some parents expressed concern about flu — though school officials said they don’t want to call for a bise ban just yet.
“I’ve told him to keep a safe distance from other students, though I’m not sure he obeys me,” said Marina Ristic, 30, as she pecked the cheek of her 7-year-old son Andrea, then squirted his hands with anti-bacterial gel as she picked him up after school. “I’m a bit worried — that’s why I carry this stuff.”
Magali Pouget, another parent outside the school, said her employer — the big Paris department store chain Printemps — has instructed its staffers to avoid shaking hands or exchanging bises.
“I’m cautious, but so much has been made of swine flu in the media that we’re pretty well aware of what to do,” she said. “It’s probably just as well that we do too much than too little.”
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ksmarketingteam
September 9, 2009
NJ: 29 hepatitis cases tied to 1 doctor’s office
By BETH DeFALCO Associated Press WriterSeveral thousand patients of a New Jersey doctor should get tested for blood-borne diseases because of an outbreak linked to his office that has led to more than two dozen being diagnosed with hepatitis B, state health officials said.
In March, the state said five of Dr. Parvez Dara’s patients were found to have hepatitis B and that nearly 2,800 patients should get tested for it. There are now 29 positive cases, plus 68 others who tested positive for antibodies but cannot be definitely linked to the outbreak, according to the state Health Department.
The state is aware of nearly 1,400 patients who have been tested so far.
On Aug. 12, state epidemiologist Dr. Christina Tan sent a letter to 2,000 more patients and to patients in the first group who had yet to get tested urging them to do so.
In July, the department responded to an Associated Press open records request by declining to release any information about the test results, citing the ongoing investigation. The department quietly released the test results on its Web site Sept. 1, nearly three weeks after sending out the letter to patients.
Health Department spokeswoman Donna Leusner said the investigation is ongoing, but a report was prepared at the request of the Board of Medical Examiners, which suspended Dara’s license in April.
A spokesman for Dara criticized the health department for releasing the test results while the investigation is still open, saying it was a “rush to judgment.”
“There are a number of possible medical reasons that explain why hepatitis B may have developed among patients — particularly those being treated for cancer with chemotherapy,” said Dara spokesman Tim White.
Health inspectors visited Dara’s office in March and described conditions there as unsanitary. The inspectors said they found blood on the floor of a room where chemotherapy was administered, blood in a bin where blood vials were stored, unsterile saline and gauze, and open medication vials.
Inspectors also cited problems with cross-contamination of pens, refrigerators and countertops; use of contaminated gloves; and misuse of antiseptics, among other health code violations.
Following the inspection, county health officials sent a March 28 letter to Dara’s patients warning them of the risk and suggesting they be tested for the liver diseases hepatitis B and hepatitis C and for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
“Evidence gathered at this time suggests that since 2002, some clinic staff provided care in a manner that put patients at risk for infection caused by bloodborne viruses, including hepatitis B,” the Aug. 12 letter told patients. “The investigation to date suggests that the hepatitis B infections identified may be associated with the method by which medications were administered and procedures performed at the practice.”
Dara, originally from Pakistan, has been practicing at his Toms River office for 23 years and has been a licensed oncologist in New Jersey since 1980. He estimated that he saw 45 to 60 patients a day, with about a dozen receiving chemotherapy each day.
Press Association
