With hospital bed rails potential ‘hotspots’ for dangerous bacteria, manufacturer Schlosserei Röll is now offering solid antimicrobial copper rails.
It has developed a range of touch surface products for hospitals – including bed rails, IV poles, toilet flushes, door and window fittings, overbed tables and custom products – benefiting from copper’s ‘hygienic properties’, which can reduce microbial contamination ‘by >80%’.
Röll’s antimicrobial copper bed rails, IV poles, and toilet flushes, have recently been installed at Hagen General Hospital (Allgemeines Krankenhaus Hagen) in Germany, where door furniture and light switches had already been replaced with antimicrobial copper products.
The Copper Development Association said: “Copper is a powerful antimicrobial with rapid, broad-spectrum efficacy against bacteria and viruses that cause hospital infections, such as MRSA and norovirus. It shares this benefit with a range of copper alloys, forming a family of materials collectively called ‘antimicrobial copper’.”
Röll received approval to use the Cu+ mark on its antimicrobial copper range in April this year.
The CDA explained: “The Antimicrobial Copper brand and certification mark, Cu+, are used by material suppliers and designers, specifiers, and manufacturers, to indicate that their products and services employ Antimicrobial Copper. Their use indicates permission for the organisation to do so has been granted on behalf of the International Copper Association.”
