SteriHandle™ Opens Door to Improved Hygiene
Cardiff (PRWEB UK) 12 August 2013 -- Norovirus cases in the UK surged to a five year high in 2012 and the winter vomiting virus was responsible for closing hundreds of hospital wards. MRSA also continues to pose a serious threat to public health and places a strain on healthcare services.
Recent reports show a total of 131 million days were lost because of sickness absence in 2011* and the 2012 Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) survey reports the average cost of sickness absence per employee is £600. This represents an average yearly loss of 6.8 days for each employee.
PHS Washrooms is leading the fight back with Sterihandle™, a revolutionary door handle which reduces the spread of infectious diseases. SteriHandle™ is coated with the antibacterial technology of SteriTouch® which harnesses the natural sterilising properties of silver. Available in both push and pull options, SteriHandle™ is permanently fixed to the door and incorporates a replaceable component serviced every six months.
In independent trials, SteriHandle™ achieved an impressive 99.99% reduction of MRSA and E.coli within 10 minutes, reducing the number of organisms typically found on a door handle from over 140,000 to less than 10 in the same time period.
SteriHandle™ has already been voted Top Product by Tomorrow’s Cleaning and Tomorrow’s FM and hygiene experts at PHS Washrooms believe it will significantly improve public health by reducing cross contamination.
Keri Reynolds, marketing manager at PHS Washrooms, said: “Up to one million people a year are thought to catch the debilitating norovirus bug which, along with many other viruses and bacteria, can be spread by touching infected door handles.
“SteriHandle™ maintains a safer, cleaner and more hygienic surface and the antimicrobial coating kills bacteria quickly at the point of transmission, reducing the risk of illness.
“Door handles are a risk area, providing a habitat for a high amount of pathogenic germs, such as MRSA, E.coli and salmonella which not only cause sickness but can be potentially lethal, especially for vulnerable people in hospitals and care homes.
“The introduction of SteriHandle™ will reduce cross contamination, not just within washrooms but throughout a whole building, improving hygiene for staff and visitors.”
SteriHandle™ can be used as part of a hand hygiene management approach for all environments, including schools, offices, shopping centres, leisure centres and public health and care facilities.
SteriHandle™ is the latest PHS Washrooms product to utilise SteriTouch® to protect many touchable areas of a washroom. SteriTouch® is incorporated as standard in a number of PHS Washrooms’ hand dryers, soap and towel dispensers, sanitisers and sanitary disposal units.
Part of the PHS Group, PHS Washrooms offers nationwide coverage and has 50 years experience in away-from-home washroom services.
For more information on SteriHandle™ and the SteriTouch® range of products visit http://www.phs.co.uk/washrooms or call 029 2080 9090.
~ ends ~
Notes to Editors:
*source: Office for national statistics: Sickness absence in the labour market.
The PHS Group is a leading workplace services provider, and has traded in the UK since 1963. It has a diverse service portfolio aimed at improving work and leisure spaces, while making life much easier for facilities, building and people managers.
PHS really does ‘do more than you think’, providing products and services for:
• Crate rental and packaging
• Interior and exterior planting
• Laundry equipment and workwear
• Matting and flooring
• Records storage and management
• Shredding and recycling
• Testing and compliance
• Washrooms
• Waste management
• Water machines
• Workplace consumables
PHS provides these direct to UK companies, and also operates as a tier one supplier to the facilities management market, supporting the integrated service propositions of most of the major FMs.
The PHS Group’s annual turnover for the year ending March 2012 was £422 million. It employs around 5,000 personnel, operates from a wide network of 153 regional service branches, and takes care of over 250,000 customers at over 450,000 locations in the UK, Ireland, Holland, Belgium and Spain.
Lucy Oates, PHS Washrooms, http://www.phs.co.uk/washrooms, 0161 927 3131, [email protected]
Share this article