Hospital Disinfection

Buy Indigo® 10000ppm chlorine test strips for hospital liquid waste disinfection. Sodium hypochlorite is a broad-spectrum disinfectant of viruses, bacteria & fungi well suited to the hospital environment. A 5000ppm solution of sodium hypochlorite should suffice for most needs. However, biological waste with high levels of organics such as blood, proteins or lipids should be treated with a 10000ppm (1%), solution. Allow for at least 1 minute for surface disinfection and 20 minutes for liquid waste disinfection.

Disinfection in hospitals is more demanding since organics such as vomit & feces can absorb available chlorine. Hypochlorites are also significantly inactivated in the presence of blood. Concentrated sodium hypochlorite can reduce environmental contamination on surfaces such as bedrails & pressure cuffs in patient rooms where this is a high endemic infection rate & risk of outbreak.

Sodium hypochlorite (household bleach), diluted roughly 10:1 for a 5.25% (5000-10000ppm) can inactivate up to 10⁶ Clostridium difficile spores in under 10 minutes. This is especially important for sterilizing critical surgical-medical devices & instruments such as endoscopes, endotracheal tubes & respiratory therapy equipment that is in contact with normally sterile tissue or mucous membranes.

Another important hospital application is disposal of biohazardous waste. Liquid biohazardous waste may be decontaminated with sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) when enough is added to reach 1% (10000ppm). Leave the bleach-waste for at least 30 minutes, then dispose in a sink with large amounts of water.