Ensuring workplace wellness and restroom hygiene is top of mind for building professionals as employers balance return-to-work policies with continuing concerns about the spread of infectious diseases and their variants. Airborne particles carrying viruses like the flu and coronavirus spread through workplaces, infecting people who inhale or touch the disease-causing agents.
Studies have long shown that viruses and bacteria live on surfaces and in the air. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, research has been conducted concerning plumes emitted from flushing toilets and the associated risk of the spread of virus aerosol particles.
According to a May 2020 American Institute of Physics article published in Physics of Fluids, entitled “Can a toilet promote virus transmission? From a fluid dynamics perspective,” strong turbulence is generated from toilet flushing. The article says that an upward velocity of as much as 16 feet per second is produced, which is capable of expelling aerosol particles out of the toilet bowl. Approximately 40 to 60% of particles can rise above the toilet seat to cause large-area spread. The height of these particles can reach 42 inches from the ground. In the post-flushing period (35 to 70 seconds after the last flushing), the upward velocity of the diffused particles can reach between 0.10 inches per second and 0.15 inches per second, and they continue to climb. According to the article, the data analysis indicates that given the same amount of water and the same gravitational potential energy, annular flushing causes more virus spread.
Now for the good news: Independent studies show that BobrickPure Hygiene Solutions neutralize 98.11% of airborne and 99.6% of surface microorganisms.
How do BobrickPure Hygiene Solutions help to ensure workplace wellness and restroom hygiene?
A healthy staff and maximum productivity begin with the safest workplace possible. Bobrick is ensuring facility wellness and hygiene with the smartest way to neutralize and eliminate harmful bacteria, viruses, and odors.
The PureDri Sanitizing Hand Dryer is a restroom device that protects hands with a blast of super-concentrated ionized air following the drying cycle, while providing constant sanitization to the room itself. The PureSphere Air Sanitizer is a 24/7 hygiene solution for air and indoor surfaces, offering complete workspace comfort and safety.
The PureSphere Air Sanitizer provides complete workspace hygiene by sanitizing areas up to 323 square feet. Photo courtesy of Bobrick Washroom Equipment
How do BobrickPure Hygiene Solutions work continuously to create cleaner, fresher air?
The nonstop germ control technology lowers cleaning costs and labor hours while guaranteeing a safer restroom space. BobrickPure’s constant sanitization technology uses targeted ozone, superoxide ions, and hydroxy radicals to create an environment hostile to microorganisms, helping to deliver the safest, most hygienic restroom possible. Thanks to this continuous protection, restrooms have no need for heavy fragrances and masking agents to cover up odors.
What are the workplace benefits of the BobrickPure Hygiene Solutions?
BobrickPure Hygiene Solutions enhance your facility spaces with unparalleled safety and hygiene, which brings wellness and productivity to staff, helping to reduce absenteeism. Simple, inexpensive, and reliable to run, with no filters and just one lamp change per year, each product’s long lifespan ensures a reliable product that continues to work well years after installation. Finally, passive cleaning reduces labor hours, while enhancing the restroom space for staff and visitors with unparalleled safety and hygiene.
The PureSphere Air Sanitizer is suitable for all occupied areas including restrooms, lounges and other spaces throughout your facility. Photo courtesy of Bobrick Washroom Equipment
What is the ideal location to install PureDri Sanitizing Hand Dryers?
As the smartest, safest option for new, retrofit, and remodeled restrooms, the PureDri Sanitizing Hand Dryer is the most energy-efficient hand dryer on the market, running on just 220 watts. The upper chamber provides continuous air and surface sanitization of the room. During the drying cycle, the lower chamber hand dryer provides 12 seconds of pre-set dry time, followed by a blast of super-concentrated ionized air for 8 seconds. Following the drying cycle, PureDri continues to sanitize the area up to 215 square feet and creates a 6-foot protective shield around each unit, resulting in double sanitization levels with every use. In addition, the efficient jet dry mechanism minimizes the impact of water droplets from hands.
Suitable for all commercial and public restrooms as a new installation or upgrade, the PureDri mounting template will fit over an existing dryer space.
What makes the PureSphere Air Sanitizer better than currently available air purifiers?
Clinically proven science supports the best-in-class technology of this nonstop health and hygiene device with guaranteed odor control, so your rooms feel fresh and smell clean. Suitable for all rooms and occupied areas, including restrooms, lounges, and other spaces throughout your facility, the PureSphere Air Sanitizer provides complete workspace hygiene by sanitizing areas up to 323 square feet. The blue lamp indicates the device’s continuous operation as it purifies 24 hours per day, offering silent thermal convection with no fan. Connecting directly to existing electrical systems, the permanent installation on any wall or ceiling is easy and shows your commitment to hygiene and safety. Lastly, the filterless design and only one bulb replacement per year makes it a low-effort, low-maintenance choice.
What is the technology behind BobrickPure Hygiene Solutions?
PureDri Sanitizing Hand Dryers in your facility restrooms and PureSphere Air Sanitizers throughout the building offer a breakthrough combination of patent-pending pathogen-destroying technologies to ensure the highest levels of hygiene and cleanliness.
BobrickPure Hygiene Solutions employ four technologies working together for the purest, safest, cleanest air possible. Through internal UV reaction and ionic transmission processes, PureDri Sanitizing Hand Dryers and PureSphere Air Sanitizers continuously emit a super-concentrated airflow that reacts to and eliminates pathogens.
Combining photocatalytic disinfection, germicidal irradiation, and dual waveband UV, our best-in-class technology sanitizes both air and indoor surfaces. According to a Leeds University research study, this technology is proven to eliminate 99% of bacteria, viruses, mold, and fungi in fewer than 10 minutes.
Both units work through a four-part process:
- A combination of photocatalytic oxidation, germicidal irradiation, and dual waveband UV produce a continuous flow of sanitizing plasma. (Plasma is the fourth state of matter along with solid, liquid, and gas. While plasma may be similar to a gas, it behaves like a liquid and flows through the air.)
- UV-based photocatalytic oxidation and titanium dioxide combine to create hydroxyl radicals. The hydroxyl radicals neutralize bacteria, mold, and fungi, viruses, dust mites, allergens, and harmful volatile organic compounds.
- When the UV light reacts with the titanium dioxide catalysts, it causes a release of electrons that bond with oxygen to produce superoxide ions. Superoxide ions charge very small particles (0.01 microns), resulting in their forming clusters that remove viruses and bacteria from the air. For example, the novel coronavirus is 0.06 microns.
- Finally, ozone is produced when the 185nm UV light reacts with oxygen to form monatomic oxygen, which then bonds with oxygen to form ozone. Ozone is a powerful oxidizing agent and highly effective in neutralizing molds, bacteria, fungi, and viruses.
What types of pathogens are BobrickPure Hygiene Solutions able to eradicate?
There is a generally accepted hierarchy of resistance to disinfection recognized by the CDC as well as the FDA. This hierarchy is based on the structural taxonomy of microbes. This ranking is shown below along with which type of microbes have been used to validate the technology in PureDri and PureSphere.
Image courtesy of Bobrick
Three independent research organizations—the Health Protection Agency, SGS, and University of Leeds—determined the efficacy of both PureDri and PureSphere in neutralizing a variety of bacteria and viruses. The efficacy is as follows:
Image courtesy of Bobrick
Can the BobrickPure technology protect people from coronavirus?
Currently, coronavirus testing using a live virus is prohibited. However, because coronavirus is the type of virus with lipid envelopes outside of the human body, it falls into the same category as influenza, making it one of the easiest types of pathogen to destroy.
Scientists have tested BobrickPure technology against a wide variety of microorganisms that are harder to kill than viruses with lipid envelopes and found that our technology reduced or eliminated the efficacy of all of the tested microorganisms. Therefore we anticipate the same efficacy result against coronavirus.
How does the efficacy of BobrickPure Hygiene Solutions compare with traditional cleaning agents?
The technology of BobrickPure Hygiene Solutions is 206% more powerful than chlorine and 157% more powerful than hydrogen peroxide.
Independent studies show that BobrickPure Hygiene Solutions neutralize 98.11% of airborne and 99.6% of surface microorganisms. Photo courtesy of Bobrick Washroom Equipment
How does the technology of BobrickPure Hygiene Solutions compare with HEPA filtration?
Until now, HEPA’s ability to purify air has served as the standard of filtration. The UV power of PureDri and PureSphere provide sanitization powerful enough to neutralize bacteria and viruses and provide an extra layer of safety and cleanliness. Both products are more effective than HEPA filtration by destroying particles that are smaller than 0.3 microns.
In addition, HEPA filters lose their effectiveness when they become clogged with debris, and only those labeled as washable or permanent can be cleaned. While research shows they can be effective in capturing a variety of viruses and bacteria in healthcare settings, they can only capture up to 0.3 microns. PureDri and PureSphere go a step further to neutralize as small as 0.0001 microns. In addition, appropriate installation of HEPA filtration to achieve negative pressure isolation during virus outbreaks can be tedious and time-consuming. Care must be taken during cleaning to avoid damaging the filter or breaking or stretching out the fibers, which happens all too easily.
PureDri and PureSphere are not encumbered by these issues.
What about the safety of using UV light?
Each BobrickPure Hygiene Solution is designed so UV light cannot escape the unit from any angle, ensuring the device and its technology are completely safe.
How does the technology of BobrickPure Hygiene Solutions safely harness ozone?
Ozone is a molecule consisting of three atoms of oxygen found both in the Earth’s upper atmosphere and at ground level. At unsafe levels, ozone emissions can be harmful; however, ozone emitted through PureDri and PureSphere is between 0.02 and 0.03 parts per million, which is well beneath regulatory requirements by the UL, California Air Resources Board, and FDA, each of which specify 0.05 parts per million to be safe.
During thunderstorms the atmosphere naturally produces between 0.03 and 0.05 ppm of ozone. The scent experienced in a room fitted with a BobrickPure Hygiene Solution reminds some early users of the air after a thunderstorm due to the sanitizing effects of the safe levels of ozone.
How can I incorporate BobrickPure Hygiene Solutions into my facility?
Bobrick is currently piloting BobrickPure Hygiene Solutions in specially selected locations to gather feedback from patrons, tenants, and employees. Because any new experience can generate questions, we designed the PureStart Program to help the organizations with which we are partnering achieve positive results for their patrons and employees. If you’d like to be among the first to create a healthier workplace using BobrickPure Hygiene Solutions, email Garrett.Szafman@Bobrick.com about participating in the PureStart Program.
