Effects of microwave irradiation on bacteria attached to the hospital white coats.
A test to sterilize pieces of cloths, which are the material of hospital white coats (doctors and nurses wears), by microwave irradiation in place of autoclaving was done using a commercial 2,450 MHz microwave oven. When pieces of cloths made of cotton (35%) and polyester (65%) were contaminated experimentally with Escherichia coli or Staphylococcus aureus and irradiated by microwave, the bacteria were killed quite rapidly according to almost first-order reaction kinetics. Only after a 20-sec irradiation, when the water content of cloths was decreased from the original 48% to 35%, the relative survivals of these bacteria fell to below 1% that of the non-irradiated control. The cloths were neither browned nor crisped, even after a 10-min irradiation of microwaves.
Kakita
Y
Y
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Fukuoka University, Japan.
Funatsu
M
M
Miake
F
F
Watanabe
K
K
D003020:Clothing; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000528:radiation effects*; D003368:Gossypium; D008872:Microwaves; D011091:Polyesters; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000528:radiation effects*; D013242:Sterilization / Q000379:methods*
D011091:Polyesters