Antimicrobial Additives: Bacteria’s Number One Public Enemy
Let’s go back to a time when we were in elementary school. Do you remember when we learned that hand sanitizer was the holy grail of killing bacteria on our hands and then we suddenly wanted to pour it on everything because we learned how bad it is to come into contact with ‘bad bacteria’? So do we!
Apart from antimicrobials like sanitizers, we are now seeing surfaces already being treated with something called an antimicrobial additive. But before we can understand what an antimicrobial additive does and how it can benefit us, we must first understand exactly what bacteria is, what kinds get us sick, and how they spread. In this blog, we’ll learn a little more about that and the staggering ways that surfaces can be treated to stop this spread and keep product users more sanitized.
What is bacteria and how does it spread?
Bacteria is a unique type of biological cell that has cell walls, but lack a nucleus and membrane bound organelles. It’s considered the meekest of creatures that are considered alive and live basically everywhere: on every surface, on your clothes, skin, and even inside of your body. It’s not seen with the naked eye but can be viewed through a microscope – just like the ones we used in our middle school biology labs. Some forms of bacteria are called pathogens and can cause infections and diseases that can do bodily harm on humans, plants, and animals. Some examples of pathogens are pneumonia, tetanus, leprosy, food poisoning, and typhoid fever. Now, this isn’t to say all bacteria is bad as there are some types that are not harmful at all and actually play a great role in human survival as well as our ecosystems.
It’s extremely easy for bacteria to spread and multiply. All it takes is to come into contact with a contaminated surface, water, food, infected creatures (animals, people, livestock), etc. Once something is contaminated and you come into contact with it, it sticks like glue and therefore anything, or anyone, that you come into contact with can potentially get contaminated as well.
There are many ways that one can spare from catching harmful bacteria and many product manufacturers all over the world, like us, are constantly looking for ways to minimize this spread so we can do our part in keeping each other safe and healthy. One of the ways we do this is by utilizing something called an antimicrobial additive onto the products that are being manufactured. Since Saniflow manufactures products like electric hand dryers and diaper changing stations, it is imperative that we do this so that the patrons using our units on a day-to-day basis are rest assured that we’re doing what we can to keep the hygiene.
What does an antimicrobial additive do?
According to BioCote®’s website, an antimicrobial is defined as something that can resist, inhibit and prevent the growth of microbes including bacteria and mould. This antimicrobial additive with silver ion technology is fused onto products during the manufacturing stage and provides continuous protection from the previously mentioned microbes. Products that can have this agent integrated are plastic, polymers, paints, coatings, ceramics, textiles, and even fabrics!
Let’s use our BabyMedi® diaper changing stations as an example when discussing how this additive works. Our BabyMedi® stations have BioCote® antimicrobial additive added onto the ABS plastic where the babies are set to have their diapers changed. Let’s say that before the guardian opened up the table to change the baby, there was another patron who used it as well. Whatever microbes that came into contact with the silver-ion technology on the BabyMedi® will ultimately not be able to spread and eventually be annihilated by DNA interference as well as protein, oxidative, and cell membrane damage.
Why did Saniflow choose BioCote® Technology?
BioCote® is recognized widely around the world for their prodigious reputation. They have been around for more than 20 years and is the market’s leading antimicrobial additive supplier. This additive is 99.99% effective around-the-clock at every hour of every day to doing its job in stopping bacteria and other microbes to grow and spread.
As mentioned before, Saniflow is the kind of manufacturer that is highly committed to making sure our products are designed and manufactured to be as hygienic as possible for users. It is important for us that our patrons trust that they are being safe when operating our products: like when changing a baby’s diaper on the BabyMedi or using a hands-in commercial hand dryer like our Dualflow Plus.
During the design phase of a selected number of products that were on track to being manufactured, BioCote® Technology was researched by our team of experts and they immediately believed that it would add so much more value to our brand to incorporate it. Well, guess what? They were right!
