Disposable plastic aprons form a vital component of most hospital workers’ personal protective equipment (PPE). Hospital personnel are often required to wear suitable, disposable plastic aprons because of the potential risk of exposure to a variety of hazards within the hospital environment.
In the CSSD for example, staff may be exposed to a variety of chemistries and possible pathogenic (disease causing) micro-organisms. A function of the CSSD is to reprocess and sterilize surgical packs/devices so that the packs/devices are safe to use on patients. However, the process of cleaning, decontamination, packing and sterilization will frequently result in the CSSD worker being exposed to potentially harmful organisms. The disposable plastic apron is often used in conjunction with other PPE. This would include gloves, face masks and bonnets/caps. PPE is worn in order to offer a high level of protection to the CSSD worker. Plastic aprons are also used in variety of other areas in the hospitals including theatre, isolation wards, patient wards and ICU.
SafMed supplies plastic disposable aprons with a minimum thickness of 20microns.
Tests have shown that material thinner than this does not stand up to normal use of the apron. An apron made of thinner plastic (less than 20microns) material will have to be replaced/changed more frequently, which is not cost effective. The aprons supplied by SafMed, are manufactured from “Virgin” Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) and not from re-gran material (re-granulated). Re-gran material is made from plastic waste products that are collected and re-granulated to make raw material, which is then converted into plastic film. We strongly recommend that aprons manufactured from re-granulated material should not be used in a hospital environment. SafMed’s apron supplier does take the environment into consideration as they operate one of the largest plastic re-cycling plants in the Western Cape. They remove approximately 5 tons of used plastic out of the environment every month re-cycling it into re-usable plastic raw material.
All aprons are packed as 25 per dispenser card. (8 cards per pack = 200 aprons)
The dispenser card can be conveniently hung on an apron dispenser on a wall to simplify stock control, reduce wastage and to avoid the danger of loose aprons on the floor. SafMed will loan apron dispensers to any customer that orders the SafMed aprons.
Aprons are available in variety of colours (white, red, yellow, blue and green) and lengths.