TRSA said the conclusions of the FEMS Microbiology Letters — “Clostridium difficile environmental contamination within a clinical laundry facility in the USA,” fueled misleading impressions of hospital laundry cleanliness, according to an article on the Textile World website.

“The report suggests that ‘soiled clinical linens may be a source of c. difficile surface contamination’ at a laundry,” said TRSA President and CEO Joseph Ricci. 

Several areas of the study were referenced by the TRSA:

• No significant contamination was found on the clean side of the subject laundry

• It was expected that the soiled linen area would be more vulnerable to contamination than clean areas

• No conclusion was reached regarding soiled linen contamination as a risk to laundry workers

• In processing hundreds of millions of soiled healthcare linens each year for decades, the number of documented cases of contamination or transfer of C. diff or any other transferrable disease or bacteria to an employee, patient or healthcare provider has no statistical bearing.

Read the article.