Bacterial study shows the way for Rehau

Bacterial study shows the way for Rehau

Determined to prove the performance of its own products in a medical environment, Rehau recently commissioned a microbiological analysis of BioCote treated Rehau cable trunking installed at the newly opened Churchfields GP Surgery in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, and compared it with cable trunking installed at the previous Churchfields surgery, which had been out of use for several months.

The results were hugely impressive with a bacterial colony count (CFU) of just three on the cable trunking in the new surgery compared with 228 in the old one – a reduction of 98.69 per cent.

To give an even clearer indication of the performance of the trunking, Rehau also measured the bacterial colony count on the comparable door handle in the new surgery which showed a level of 215 and on the windowsill which showed a level of 160.

Overall, the comparative study between the two buildings showed that the new surgery, which had been open for two months, was in general less contaminated than the old one with a reduction in the mean bacterial counts in three out of the four rooms sampled. Of course, this can be explained partly by the fact that there has been neither human traffic nor cleaning carried out at the old surgery since the new one was opened.

However, whilst it goes some way to explaining the low bacterial loads on the cable trunking it is not the whole picture and contrasts completely with the CFU count on the door handle in the old surgery which was just eight compared with 215 in the new, indicating clearly the real impact of human touch on the bacterial count of untreated surfaces even in regularly cleaned environments.

Malcolm Taylor, the sales and marketing manager for Rehau Cable Management said that the study, conducted using approved bacterial culture techniques, supports the case for incorporating antimicrobial products into healthcare settings.

He said, ‘We were able to directly compare treated and untreated cable trunking in the old and new surgeries as well as treated and non-treated comparable products in the new surgery. Whilst BioCote can provide laboratory evidence of the antibacterial effect of its silver ion technology, what this study gives us is a real understanding of the performance of our product in a real medical application.

‘We will be communicating the findings to specifiers across the healthcare sector and in other environments where there is concern about levels of bacteria.’

At Churchfields, Rehau supplied 400m of anti-microbial Profila/Compact data cable trunking to electrical contractor Barrie Beard for installation throughout the new building to manage the power and data cabling requirement.

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