The Value of Antimicrobial Touch-Points

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Who is Safe Touch?

Safe Touch Global has two key focus areas:

  1. Increasing peoples safety from viruses and germs
  2. Reducing the cost of constant cleaning time and product

Safe Touch Global is the UK distributor of the leading antimicrobial touchpoint provider, Veraco. Antimicrobial products have been increasingly expanding around us to help protect us from viruses and germs, especially since the pandemic of Covid-19.

We all protect ourselves with PPE, however, we are all more dependent on one another when it comes to the points we all touch on a regular basis. We can and should wash our hands regularly and thoroughly and depend on others to do the same but we know that door handles, rails and buttons can be touched every minute. It is not feasible to be cleaning every touch-point every minute as it would be hugely time consuming and costly.

Since the pandemic, cleaning times and products have increased hugely to help protect staff, residents, visitors etc. It has been imperative to be responsible for those around us but it has come at a cost.

safe touch point example

With Safe Touch products for all your touch-points, you need only clean those touch-points once a day with warm water and yet it does the following:

  • SARS-CoV-2 – Reduces viral load of HCoV-229E by up to 99.87% & SARS-CoV-2 by up to 97.49%
  • KILLS GERMS – Reduces microbial growth of harmful bacteria groups and common bacteria by up to 99.99%

We can protect all door pushes, handles, rails, toilet areas, buttons (from lifts to light switches), table tops, the list goes on.

How does Silver Ion (Ag) technology work?

The antimicrobial properties of silver have been known and used for centuries. Silver Ions (Ag) are used to attack the DNA of the microbes and by doing so, weaken its biological make-up. Neutralising the microbes will prevent its ability to reproduce and multiply into dangerous pathogens.

We apply a highly durable film to our products that contains Silver Ion (Ag) technology.

  • Silver ions (Ag) are encapsulated in a glass matrix and distributed evenly throughout the protective layer of the products.
  • Silver Ions attack the microbial DNA and by doing so weaken its biological make-up.
  • Silver Ion technology prevents the formation of biofilms.

The Dangers of Bio Films

1,000 X more resistant to disinfectants than bacteria found outside of biofilms.

  • In-between cleaning gives bacteria the chance to grow and very quickly can mature into what is called a BioFilm.
  • Silver Ions attack the microbial DNA and by doing so weaken its biological make-up.
  • We use Silver Ion technology that works 24/7 when cleaning does not. This prevents the formation of biofilms.

Now we understand the increased level of protection from germs and viruses, we now need to ensure that it is cost effective as the pandemic has increased costs in terms of cleaning products and regular cleaning times as well as many other areas.

Our products are used widely across all verticals, from the NHS to Network Rail yet as critical as it is to add improved layers of protection on all touchpoints, it has to be balanced with budgets. Below is a case study of a major bank building and the impact on cost it had using Veraco products.

This is an example of a major commercial bank’s savings in comparison to cleaning using Safe-Touch:

  • Fitting Safe-Touch products led to a substantial reduction in cleaning and hygiene costs throughout the building
  • The bank no longer had to pay for additional staff to clean all the touch points throughout the building every 20/30 minutes, 5 days a week.
  • We were able to calculate that the installation of the Safe Pads and Wraps resulted in the bank saving £298.00 a day in additional cleaning
  • This equated to £6,854.00 per month

(23 working days) and annually this resulted in an overall annual cost saving of £82,848.00

The example is more to demonstrate that the increased protection across all your sites and all your touch-points could pay for itself. Also, to note, any Care Home or Retirement Living site can pay monthly therefore eliminating any outlay in a single payment.