Pilot study on the microbial contamination of conventional vs. silver-impregnated uniforms worn by ambulance personnel during one week of emergency medical service

The antimicrobial impregnation of products used everyday, such as surfaces, textiles and clothing – including those used in hospitals – is increasing. In view of potential toxic and environmental risks for users and patients, a careful risk-benefit assessment must be conducted for each newly developed product impregnated or coated with antimicrobial agents, prior to marketing and manufacture. It has been proposed that incorporation of silver threads into the clothing of emergency service workers could reduce microbial contamination over time. As clothing in the emergency services is often not adequately changed, and it is plausible that microbial contamination increases with time in use, a study was conducted in the emergency medical setting in order to test this hypothesis. We compared the contamination rates of newly developed silver-hybrid clothing with that of standard textile clothing. Samples were taken from jackets and pants of 10 emergency workers at day 0 (pre-service), day 3 and day 7 after use over a divided 4-week period to examine this hypothesis. No significant difference in the extent of microbial contamination was detected between these two materials. A larger sample size is required to further verify this result.