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22
DISINFECTION OF BEDDING AND CLOTHING.
Our method of disinfection of bedding and clothes is not so
satisfactory as it might be, and the matter forms the subject of a
report which 1 am about to bring before you. At present we
depend upon the disinfecting properties of dry, hot air, and such
disinfection is in the hands of a contractor. There is no cause for
complaint against the manner in which the work has been carried
out, but the disinfection of infected articles is work which should
rightly be undertaken by a sanitary authority, and hot air is not the
most effectual means of performing it.
The problem of disinfection is complicated by the fact that
bacteria are protected in the folds, or sheltered in the substance of
garments, &c., and it is found that they may even penetrate into
the centre of such articles as pillows and mattresses. Obviously,
then, no method of disinfection by heat affords a guarantee of
perfect safety, unless the heat is capable of penetrating the
substance of blankets, mattresses, &c. Dry, hot air, such as we
employ at Stoke Newington, has very feeble penetrating powers,
and it is practically impossible to raise the temperature of the
centre of a mattress to such a degree of heat as will suffice to
destroy some of the more resistant microbes, the available temperature
and the period of exposure being both limited by the
tendency which dry heat has to scorch and injure the articles
exposed. With a super-heated steam apparatus, not only is penetration
very rapid, but it is found that micro-organisms much more
rapidly succumb to a moist temperature.
In the face of these facts we should do well to discontinue our
present method of dry-heat disinfection, and to substitute for it
one in which super-heated steam is employed. This can be most
economically performed by contracting for the use of one of the
steam disinfectors already employed by neighbouring authorities,
for there is scarcely enough disinfection required in this parish to
justify the purchase and erection of such an apparatus for our own
exclusive use.