ISRAEL: Israeli company develops wall panel that kills bacteria 24 hours after it touches the surface

Record ID: 396472

  • Title: ISRAEL: Israeli company develops wall panel that kills bacteria 24 hours after it touches the surface
  • Date: 25th December 2009
  • Summary: NAZARETH, ISRAEL (NOVEMBER 22, 2009) (REUTERS) DOOR READING 'OPERATING ROOM' OPENING, NURSE WALKING THROUGH DOORWAY IN NAZARETH HOSPITAL VARIOUS OF NURSES PREPARING OPERATING ROOM, WHICH IS COATED WITH PALRAM ANTI-MICROBIAL PANELS VARIOUS OF CLOSE UPS OF PVC PANELS COATING WALL IN OPERATION ROOM HUSAM SALMAN, CHIEF ENGINEER OF NAZARETH HOSPITAL, TALKING TO NURSES IN O
  • Embargoed: 9th January 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Science / Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVA7D7VTQTDO75RZPEH8OU8DILX2
  • Story Text: A self-cleaning wall may sound to most people like science fiction, but an Israeli company has developed a clever solution for hospitals, food factories and other facilities in which environments must be kept sterile.
    Palram, a company based in kibbutz Ramat Yochanan in northern Israel, said its wall-coating PVC panels, which use naturally disinfecting silver ions, can kill bacteria within 24 hours of contact. Thus, coating walls with the panels can provide a cheap and long lasting solution for places where hygiene is imperative, decreasing the need to use detergents.
    "The big news here, is that instead of having a "stupid", let's call it, wall, we have an active wall. A wall that is actively kills the microbes that touches it and we can use it in all kinds of applications like in operations room (referring to hospital operation rooms), in public areas, toilets, kitchens, food industries," said Michel Allouch, a civil engineer and Palram's marketing manager.
    "Inside the panels, we use an additive that is based on silver ions," explained Allouch, emphasising that the active material is "in the volume of the panel, not only on the surface, that's why it keeps its efficiency."
    Silver ions have been incorporated over the past several years in productions ranging from medical creams to light switches. According to Palram's plastic engineer Reuven Hugi, once the bacteria touches the panel's surface, and with the help of humidity in the room, the silver ions penetrate the bacteria's cell, attack them and damage the cell in a manner that stops it from multiplying.
    The U.S. Federal Drug Administration has approved the panels and Allouch said Palram's PVC sheets have already been installed in Israel's leading drug company, Teva, and in several hospitals in the country.
    Husam Salman, chief engineer of Nazareth Hospital in northern Israel, said the panels are in use in four newly-built operating theatres.
    "We in this hospital chose these panels to cover the walls because these panels are special, made to fight bacteria", Salman told Reuters television. According to the engineer, the PVC panels made by Palram also have another advantage that boosts their ability to keep a sterile environment clean.
    "In the operation theatre the biggest problem is that panels sometimes collide with heavy equipment, in the operation theatre. And these panels can sustain any kind of collision," Salman said, explaining that scratches on operation room walls are not only a rich environment for bacteria to multiply, but also almost un-cleanable.
    At approximately 10-12 US dollars per meter, for the average panel, Palram's product comes with a ten-year guarantee making it a reasonable solution for even the smallest of institutions.
    Intending to market it's PVC panels world-wide, Palram is now planning to implement the development on other objects that must be sterile, such as medicine carts and other mobile instruments used in the food industry.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register