The Department of Comparative Medicine at Tulane University, recently switched to Peroxigard™ Disinfectants in their animal research unit, originally in search of a safer product for all their disinfection needs. Along the way, the Associate Director and their team discovered a number of other benefits that helped them build a better biosecurity program, and solve some key challenges that they had experienced with their previous product. Here is the story about how they improved their disinfection protocols by transitioning to Peroxigard™:
Peroxigard™ has been a game-changer for us! We decided to look for a new disinfectant after hearing about potential occupational health concerns with our previous products – we used a combination of quaternary ammonium and chlorine dioxide products throughout our facility. In researching new products, Peroxigard™ came top on our list, as a solution that is non-toxic and non-irritating to both humans and animals, and that our team was comfortable using.
However, as an intensive research lab, we can’t compromise efficacy in selecting a disinfectant – we still needed a product that would be highly effective against a broad spectrum of relevant pathogens. That was another reason that Peroxigard™ stood out – its balance between being highly effective and safer to our team and our animals was a major factor in our decision to make the switch. We also wanted a product that could help us streamline our cleaning and disinfection protocols – the availability of Peroxigard™ in a variety of formats has really helped with this. For instance, we use the ready-to-use products on our hood and on other small surfaces, where the 30-second to one-minute contact time helps achieve quick turnover. It often takes that amount of time to prepare the next step of the experiment anyway! For our floors, we use the diluted concentrate at a ratio of 1:64, which helps us cover these larger areas in a cost-effective way. We’re also able to keep our bottle of diluted concentrate for up to 90 days, which has been a huge advantage over our previous product, which needed to be changed out every two weeks.
When rolling out Peroxigard™ in our facility, we were surprised by the cleaning capabilities of the product. Our old products were not able to clean our floors properly, so we had been using a floor scrubber to clean our floors separately, which added a lot of time and effort to the process. When we tried using Peroxigard™ on the flooring, it did a great job in removing tough dirt from our floors just by applying the solution with a microfibre cloth! Our floors look so much cleaner, without even using our floor scrubber. When we first started using Peroxigard™, we noticed a musty smell, and the microfibre was sticking to the surface, which actually looked dirtier than before. But we realized that this was a result of the residual dirt being removed by the disinfectant, and the effect went away shortly after, leaving the floors looking cleaner than ever.
With any disinfectant, it’s important to ensure that the team is on-board and receives the proper training needed to use the product. We worked with our team and Lighthouse Life Sciences Consultants to understand the difference between concentrates and ready-to-use products, and set up an automated mixing station for our concentrate. This has been a great way to help eliminate errors from the dilution process, and help our team quickly and easily prepare the correct concentration. Overall, Peroxigard™ has really helped us simplify our cleaning and disinfection protocols and make things easier for our team
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